The Fortress St John
by Cowman42
Summary: After the events of episode 1, the Travelier Motel survivors are on the brink of starvation. A trade deal gone new home brings the survivors into a war between a group of bandits and a dairy farm. Will they manage to protect the dairy or are they just delaying the inevitable? An alternate premise for episode 2 where the St. Johns aren't cannibals.
1. A scream in the woods

**Just a quick author's note before we begin. I thought up this idea for a fic a while ago now and have been thinking about it and planning it my head for a quite some time. The idea came to me directly from the line when Lee says that if the house is full they may have to take turns sleeping in the barn, this spawned the idea and it has formed into this story. I also wanted to give context to the group's struggles since episode 1 so the first 3 chapters are kind of ripped from the game. I've attempted to rewrite them slightly but it's especially prevalent in this chapter that not an awful lot has changed, in the next two chapters certain details are different and beyond that everything is different. Also I would like to thank you for checking this fic out and ask you to please leave a review to let me know what you think about it and how it can be improved. So without further ado let us begin.**

* * *

 **The Fortress St John**

 **Chapter 1 - A scream in the woods**

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Lee gripped his axe tight as he crept up on the unaware walker. Mark, the new guy of the group, had spotted it just moments ago in the underbrush and Lee, armed with a silent weapon, had decided to go and take care of it. As he crept up on it he saw that it was feeding, but on what he couldn't tell. He lifted his axe high up above his head and brought it down hard into the walker's thick skull, which caved with a sickening crunch. It slumped over as Lee struggled to remove the embedded axe head from its brain cavity.

"Damn it, what did they get this time?" Mark asked as he joined Lee.

"Looks like a rabbit," Lee replied as he saw the heap of meat and fur.

"Well, that's another meal lost," Mark sighed as he and Lee set off deeper into the forest. They'd been tasked with shooting something to eat, no easy task considering how the walking dead ate anything they could get their hands on with a ravenous hunger. Mark had barely escaped being eaten himself when he first met the motor inn survivors. He had been holed up inside the Robins Air Force Base and although he had had plenty of food it had quickly become overrun with those monsters. With no other option than to run he had fled the base. Luckily he met the motor inn survivors soon afterwards who had accepted him into their community; and although not all of them had been happy at first once Mark had mentioned the stockpile of food he'd amassed all resistance to his joining had soon subsided.

But that all had gone down a while ago, autumn was now in full bloom.

"I still can't believe we went through all that food in three months!" Mark said to Lee. "It seemed like so much at the time".

"Maybe you shouldn't have opened the door," Lee replied.

"Yeah, except I'd probably **be** food by now. Trust me I have no regrets".

"A rabbit's hardly a meal, but… I'd take it. We're all hungry."

"You're not wrong" Mark replied. The pair walked for a while longer, keeping an eye and an ear out for anything to eat. Lee ready to fend off walkers with his axe and Mark nervously thumbing the safety of his rifle.

"Last night I heard your friend Doug laying in bed just naming types of pie, it was driving me nuts." Mark broke the silence. "I think he's starting to lose it".

"He's not the only one...", Lee replied. "Won't you cut him some slack?".

"Yea, you're right. You think Kenny's having any more luck out here than we are?"

"I sure hope so. We've haven't found shit."

Some time passed before Mark spoke again. "I wish I knew for sure how much food we have left"

Lee thought for a moment before answering. "Not enough. According to Lilly, we've just about hit the last of our food reserves. Some people might have to go without tonight."

"You mean 'Lilly's Lottery' again. Kenny's gonna be pissed."

"She thinks that everyone should have an equal chance of missing a meal. And besides Kenny's just worried about his kid getting enough" Lee reasoned. "I worry about Clementine too".

"Yeah, between the lack of food and Kenny and Lilly fighting all the time, things are getting pretty tense back at the motor inn. It sure is nice to get away from it all and just enjoy the forest" Mark smiled. "You know Kenny's been talking about taking off in that RV if he can get it running?"

"He's got a wife and kid to look out for, Mark. He just wants to keep them safe."

"And they're safest in a big group! Going out on his own will get them **all** killed." Mark exclaimed. "Can't blame him for wanting to leave though, did you hear Larry going off on him on last night?"

"Yeah, I did. Honest to god thought we'd have to break up a fight."

"What's that old guy's deal anyway? Seems to have a big problem with you in particular"

"He's just an old racist asshole. That's his deal." Lee said coldly. And although Lee knew that wasn't the whole truth he at least suspected it to be half of it. The other half of the story was that Larry knew who Lee was, and the crime Lee had committed before the dead started to reanimate. Larry did not trust him one bit.

"Well, he needs to get over that and start finding a way to pull his weight. Heart problems or not we should all be out here trying to find food!" Mark said. "And I know Lilly thinks he's getting weaker but the guy's all muscle! He's a walking pile driver, I know I wouldn't want to be stuck in a room with him. And didn't he punch you in the face one time?"

"Knocked me flat" Lee growled, remembering the incident in the drug store well. If it hadn't had been for Kenny he would be a reanimated corpse by now.

The silence of the forest was broken by the beating of wings as a bird flew over their heads and came to perch on a tree a number of yards away. Mark rushed over to a rock and kneeled, using the rock to steady his rifle. Lee looked up at the bird and back to Mark, who had flicked off the safety on his rifle with a mechanical click.

"Can you make that shot?" Lee asked. "I'd hate to waste the bullet."

"Don't worry Lee. If I don't think I can hit it, I won't shoot." Mark whispered.

As Mark lined up the shot Lee waited with baited breath, Mark was an alright marksman but this was by far the longest shot Lee had seen him take. Lee heard Mark cock the rifle and an almighty explosion as Mark shot at the bird, but watched in despair as it flew harmlessly away. "Shit Mark, I thought you said you had it!"

"I thought I did! Shall we try following it?"

Suddenly a blood-curdling scream reverberated loudly throughout the forest from somewhere behind the pair. Lee spun around as he searched desperately for the source of the noise. "Shit! Was that Kenny!?" Mark asked him apprehensively.

"I don't know, come on!" Lee replied as he got up and ran to where yet more mutilated screams emanated from. The two ran for what seemed like a couple of hundred yards, following the noise of the screams before they ran out into a clearing.

"Jesus Christ..." Mark muttered, in shock of what he was seeing before him. In the middle of the clearing were two teenagers crowding around a man with a bloodied leg caught in a bear trap.

"Oh shit!" one of the teenagers exclaimed as he saw the pair. "No… no please don't kill us! We just want to help our teacher, we'll leave I swear!"

"Lee! Mark!" came a familiar voice from the other end of the clearing as Kenny joined them. "You guys okay?"

"We're fine, Kenny. But he's not" Lee answered, pointing to the man in the bear trap.

"Get it off, get it off god dammit! Get it off me!" the man begged.

The second teenager turned to the first, "Travis! These guys could help us-"

"Shut up Ben! My dad was special forces I know what I'm doing!" he hissed back. "They might be the same guys who raided our camp!"

Seemingly unperturbed the teenager turned back to the three men "Please, you've got to help us. Just see if you can get him out. After that, you can leave us or something, I don't care!"

"Lee, this is fucked up" Mark hissed. "We have to do something.".

"Agreed" Lee replied. "Was he bitten by one of those things?" he asked the teenagers.

"Bitten? No no, I swear!" the same teenager cried.

"Alright we'll help, but you'll have to keep your voices down", Lee told the pair.

Mark bent down and started examining the bear trap, the man in it whimpering like a dog. "This trap's been altered" Mark exclaimed. "There's no release latch!"

"Shit, we got walkers Lee!" Kenny announced as he took aim. Lee looked up as he saw ten or fifteen walkers approaching them slowly from across the clearing. They must have been attracted by the man's screams.

"Can we carry him, Mark?" Lee asked.

"No, the trap's been chained to that tree" Mark pointed. Before he knew it Lee's legs had carried him to the thick chain, Lee swung his axe with all his might, desperate to break through it. Kenny was firing like an expert marksman now, each bullet leaving a circular hole in a walker's forehead. But more and more kept coming. The axe did nothing but bounce off the chain, leaving not even a dent. "Lee, we used a chain like that to carry ordnance back at the air force base," Mark exclaimed. "You are **not** cutting through that!"

"Well, how the hell do we get him out then?"

"You'll have to cut him out, there's no other way," Kenny said as he reloaded his rifle. Mark had now joined him in taking down walkers and there was a circle of dead walkers surrounding the group, but yet more were coming.

"No please, there has to be another way. I want my leg! I want my leg!" the man begged. Fear like wildfire in his eyes.

"I'm gonna have to cut you out, I'm sorry," Lee told the man.

"Please, just try the trap again. Anything but that! Please!"

"There's no time," Lee said solemnly as he raised the axe above his head.

"Oh god..." the man whimpered before Lee swung his axe down hard just below his knee. A mutilated scream filled the clearing as Lee pulled the axe free and prepared for a second swing. Blood spurted from the wound as Lee chopped it, again and again, each wail sickening Lee to the stomach. After another three swings, the leg was attached with but a sliver of nerve and sinew and one last swing severed the last remaining link between the man and his left foot. The man looked down in disbelief at his now free leg, gushing onto the floor, creating a disgusting mix of dirt and blood. The colour from his face vanished as he lost consciousness.

"Shit, is he dead?" one of the teenagers asked as the other began to throw up.

"No, just passed out," Lee replied. "We've got someone back at our base who'll be able to help him.".

"Yes, my wife," Kenny explained. "If he's alive then grab him and let's go!" he told Mark who promptly lifted the man into a fireman's lift and began the journey back to the motor inn.

"Come on kid, let's go," Lee told the teenager as he prepared to leave.

"Wait where's Travis?" the teenager asked. He spun around quickly, looking for his friend. "Travis, **look out!** " he screamed.

The other teenager had run off to vomit and had gotten himself surrounded by the monsters, he looked wildly around as he searched despairingly for an exit. He shrieked progressively more and more panicked cries for help as he ran around in the ever constricting circle. The walkers closed the distance quickly and had soon overwhelmed him. They bit great chunks of meat from the boy's neck as they forced him to the ground and feasted from his still living, still howling flesh. Lee was pulling the remaining teenager back from going to help, to do so would mean certain death. The boy fought against him, desperate to run to his friend's aid, kicking and shoving hoping to escape the older man's grasp.

"We gotta go, he's dead," Lee begged. "There's nothing we can do." With an almighty tug, he pulled the horror struck teen away and dragged him through the forest back to the motor inn.

"Oh shit… oh shit… oh shit..." the teen muttered, unable to control his breathing or his speech.

Lee gripped his axe tight in his right hand and the boy's jacket in his left. He desperately checked the shadows for walkers attracted by the noise as they ran through the forest. The teenager started slowing, heaving for air. "Come on kid, we gotta keep moving", Lee hissed as the boy collapsed onto a log in tears of utter despair. Lee scanned the area they'd just come from and saw that there were no walkers following them, they were probably too busy eating that teenager to chase them down. He grabbed the boy and practically dragged him to feet, "Come on, our base isn't far now". They soon caught up with Mark and Kenny, who were going much slower owing to carrying the man through the thick brush.

"Which way do we go? The trees all look the fucking same!" Kenny hissed.

"This way, follow me!" Mark took control. Years of exercises in the military had given him a keen sense of direction.

They ran for what seemed like forever before the familiar sight of the motor inn came into view as the group emerged from the tree line.

" **GET THE GATE OPEN, WE GOT WOUNDED** ", Lee bellowed. This seemed to have a response as he saw the motor inn come alive with movement. He ran down from the tree line and pushed against the gate as Doug released the latch from the other side. Knackered, Lee stepped inside as Mark brought the wounded man into the facility. Everyone seemed to erupt into a cataclysm of noise and shouting.

"Who the HELL are these people?" Larry demanded. Giving Lee that hateful look he'd come to know so well.

"No time to explain," Lee answered. He looked to Katjaa who had just directed Mark and Ben to put the teacher on the back of the truck.

"Kat, can you fix him?" asked Kenny

"Jesus Ken, I don't know!" retorted Katjaa as she looked at the man's amputated leg.

"Lee, **LEE!** ", Lilly's voice rained loud above the rest. "What the hell, you can't just be bringing new people here! What were you thinking?"

"He would have died if we left him," Lee pleaded.

"So what!" Larry shrugged

"We are not responsible for every struggling survivor out there, we have to focus on our group. Right here! Right now!" Lilly shouted as she jabbed her finger at him.

"Come on Lilly, they're human beings! What would that make us if we just left them to die?" Mark said as he came to Lee's aid.

Lilly slowly turned to look Mark in the eye, "The **only** reason you're here is because you had food, enough for all of us! But guess what, that food's nearly gone and now you think bringing yet more mouths to feed is a sensible idea?"

"Fine, you guys fight it out." Mark stormed off. "Welcome to the family kid" he quipped to the teenager who had done nothing more than squirm in his shoes.

"Come over here and see what I drew" Clementine pleaded as she pulled the teenager away from the argument to save him from hearing any more. Even now Lee felt he was constantly being surprised by the 8-year-old's intelligence.

Kenny started once again on Lilly, "You like to think you're the leader of this little group but we can make our own god damn decisions! This isn't your own personal dictatorship.".

"Hey, I didn't ask to lead this group. Everyone was happy to have me distributing the food but now that there's not enough to go around suddenly I'm a god damn Nazi!"

"It doesn't matter who's in charge", Lee appealed, "Those people are here now and we have to decide what to do with them.".

"No Lee it does matter!" interrupted Kenny. "One person can't be in charge of everything! I know it might be easy to sit on the damn fence but sooner or later you're gonna have to decide whose side you're on." At that Kenny left the argument, running to help his wife with the wounded man.

"I don't see any of you stepping up to make the hard decisions," Larry jabbed at all of them. "My girl's got more balls than all of you combined."

"Dad please, why don't you go help Mark with the wall?" Lilly said softly to her father, she didn't want him to get too stressed and put his heart at risk. Larry seemed to consider arguing before giving Lee one of his meanest looks, twisting on the spot and storming off. But not before barging Doug out of his path.

"You think this is easy for me, Lee?" questioned Lilly. "Everyone's starting to hate me because I'm the one rationing the food. But nobody else wants to!". She walked over to the RV in the centre of the motor inn's square and produced something from her backpack. "You think I'm doing such a shit job then you do it! Here are today's rations, good luck!" she said as she held out a meagre amount of food. Lee took it tentatively from Lilly before she spun around and climbed back on top of the RV to resume her lookout.

Lee looked to see what Lilly had given him: half an apple, some beef jerky and two packets of cheese and crackers. Four snacks to last the entire group for a whole day. Oh how he wished Mark hadn't had missed that bird earlier on, they could be gutting and preparing it right now. But a whole bird still couldn't feed 10 people, and all Lee had to work with was four measly half-portions. He looked up from his thoughts to see that nearly all the inhabitants of the motor inn were gazing longingly towards him. All were hungry people needing feeding, he didn't envy Lilly's position at all.

He slid down the RV to the ground as he took in everything that had just happened, still knackered from the mad dash to the motor inn. As the adrenaline started to wear off Lee found he could think a lot more clearly, his thoughts ceasing to bounce around the inside of his skull. He had cut off a man's leg! He had made the conscious decision that the best course of action in that situation was to remove a person's leg, he felt sick to the core, the man's horrific screams still ringing in his ears. He hoped that Katjaa could save him, although he didn't think it likely. The group's medical supplies weren't top notch, they were a ragtag collection of over-the-counter antibiotics and a handful of bandages. At least they didn't have to worry about him reanimating and attacking them, the man wasn't bitten! Lee thought back to the other teenager as well, the one that had gotten himself surrounded. As incredibly sorry as he was for him, Lee couldn't help but feel that that teenager caused his own death, running off like, putting himself at risk. And whilst he didn't exactly deserve his fate, the teen had done nothing to prevent it.

He could hear Kenny muttering to himself angrily on the other side of the RV. From what Lee could tell it was about the group's latest scuffle, which had been becoming more and more frequent the longer they had stayed at the motel. Lilly and Kenny's power struggle was becoming a raging inferno which threatened to burn up them all up, much more of this and Lee knew that the group would become too divided to stand. The pair of them had such differing ideologies and moral codes that neither would let the other take charge, and considering they were the only two stepping up to take charge it left the group in a status quo with no real direction.

As Lee's senses started to return he realised he was hungry, very hungry. You don't realise how bad the hunger gets when you simply can't get anything to eat. Lee had gotten so used to his old lifestyle of refrigerators and fast-food joints he'd never considered the idea of simply having not enough food. And now he here he was with the option of taking some food for himself, he could claim it was his turn for some grub, but deep down Lee knew it wasn't true. To take it when others had gone for longer than him without food would be a crime. He struggled to his feet and looked around for Clementine, before anything else he was going to make sure his little girl was fed.

Clementine was with Kenny and Katjaa's son Duck in the middle of a circle of chairs which served as the group's common area. Doug had recently placed a section of plywood down to allow the children to colour on something other than the asphalt, and since then Lee had become overwhelmed by Clementine's own personal collection of art. As Lee approached he noticed that her hat was nowhere to be seen, which was unusual because the only time Lee had seen Clementine part with it was to comb her hair.

"Hey sweet pea, how're doing?" Lee asked as she got up from her drawing to greet him.

"I'm okay" she replied cheerfully

"Where's your hat Clementine?" Lee inquired

"I don't know, can you help me find it?" she asked as she patted her head as if to check it was still gone.

"Of course, I always find it's best to retrace your steps when you've lost something. Where did you last see it?"

"I dunno, I know I had it yesterday. I went to sleep and when I woke up it was gone."

"Well alright, I promise if find it you'll be the first to know," Lee told her reassuringly.

"Thanks, Lee!" Clementine beamed. Then she reached down and picked up her drawing "Can you have a look at what I drew?"

"Wow Clem, this is very good!" Lee said as he examined the picture of some kind of animal.

"Can you tell what it is?" Clementine asked apprehensively.

Lee examined the drawing closely. "I think it's a-"

"-it's a goat!" interrupted Duck as he looked up from his own drawing.

"No, I don't think so Duck. A goat doesn't have strips," said Lee. "Is it a tiger Clem?".

"No it's my neighbour's cat Oliver," she said smiling. "Mrs Ferguson would let me play with him whenever we went round."

"Ahhh I see it now. I've never been one for cats, always been a dog person myself" Lee said as he handed her back her drawing. He spied Clementine's walkie-talkie sitting on the floor next to her crayons. "That thing still doesn't work does it?"

"No, not since it broke at the drug store."

"You just gonna hold onto it then?"

"If that's alright, I.. uh… need it" she stammered.

"It's okay hon," he replied. That walkie talkie was the last thing connecting Clementine to her parents, for her to let **it** go would be like her letting **them** go. As if she were reading his mind Clementine's face fell and turned into one of great sadness.

"You said they'd find us and that they'd come looking for us.".

"I know I did," he said softly.

"And until then-"

"-look, Clementine...".

Lee scratched his head, how was he going to tell her about the things he'd heard on the answering machine in her house? About her dad being bitten and hearing her mother's last words. They were both dead and he knew it.

"I'm not stupid Lee," she said suddenly. "I know it's just pretend, but it makes me feel better".

Once again Lee was moved by her intelligence. "Alright," he said to her. "Keep it safe then."

"I will" she smiled, giving the walkie talkie a little pat.

"How about a little food Clementine?"

"Yes please, Lee!"

"Alright, what about some cheese and crackers?" he said as he offered them out to Clementine, who eagerly took them and had soon opened the packet.

"Thank you, maybe a sundae would be better next time" She giggled with a mouth full of food, "If you have more I think Duck is hungry too".

Duck once again looked up from his drawing, "Yeah! When am I gonna get some food?".

"Don't worry Duck, here you go. How about an apple?"

"Oh heck yes!" he exclaimed. "Is there any peanut butter?"

"What do you think, Duck?"

"No. Probably not"

"Nope", Lee confirmed. Kenny's son really was dumber than a bag of hammers. "So what are **you** drawing Duck?" Lee asked

"It's a brachiosaurus! They're the ones with the really long necks!" he said as he handed over the drawing. There was no doubt about it, Clementine's drawing was a lot neater.

"That's very good Duck," Lee complimented as he handed the drawing back.

Lee looked up as he saw that the teenage boy they'd saved from the woods was just sitting staring into space. He looked traumatised and Lee couldn't help but feel incredibly sorry for him. "Clem, I've got to take care of some things. Why don't you go back to playing with Duck for a while?".

"Okay, Lee" she smiled

Lee walked over to the boy, who met his gaze at he sat down in a chair next to him."Hey, is my teacher gonna make it?" he asked Lee.

"I don't know, but Katjaa is doing everything she can, I promise."

"Is she a doctor?"

"A vet", Lee replied. "But how different is an animal to a human anyway, though?" he asked, to no improvement of the teen's horror-struck face. The boy stared at the ground, lost in his thoughts.

"I can't believe you chopped off his leg"

"I'm sorry but there was no other way," Lee said sadly. "Who are you people, anyway? Our group is going to want to know."

"I'm Ben. Ben Paul. The man whose leg you cut off is Mr Parker, he's the band director at our school. We were all on a school trip to the football playoffs when… everything happened."

"What happened to the rest of your group?"

"A few days ago a group of bandits attacked us and... they killed anyone they saw. Me, Travis and Mr Parker escaped but I don't know if anyone else did," said Ben.

"That's... rough. How are you holding up?"

Ben stared into space for a while before answering, "I dunno. I can't believe Travis is gone… one minute he was there and the next he's dead, just like that. I keep thinking maybe there was something I could have to done to help, some kind of.. uh… I don't know… something".

"I don't know, but you can't beat yourself up over it. You gotta move on. Do you fancy some food?" Lee offered, as he felt that this high school student hadn't eaten in days.

Ben looked up, "Yes please, I am **really** hungry"

"Here you go," Lee said as he handed Ben the beef jerky.

"Thank you, your name's Lee right?" Ben asked.

"Sure is, and I'm sure you'll get to know us in no time," Lee reassured, "If you decide to stay that is. Anyway, I'm gonna go check on the others" he said as he stood up from his chair. "Ben? Don't worry about your friend, we'll get him sorted in no time". This seemed to provide some small degree of comfort to Ben, as he sat chewing on his beef jerky.

Lee searched through his pockets to find that all he had left was one packet of cheese and crackers, he'd already given out 3 quarters of the day's rations. Lee thought about who had eaten most recently and decided that Doug was probably the person to have gone the longest without food.

Doug was a resourceful man and was constantly thinking up clever little ways of improving the security of the motor inn, today was no different. As Lee approached he saw that Doug had strung up a series of bells to the wall, for what though Lee couldn't fathom.

"Hey Doug", Lee greeted. Doug seemed to be particularly on edge today as he jumped out of his skin and hit his head on one of the bells.

"Ahh shit.." Doug groaned as he got up and rubbed his head. "Hey Lee, you startled me".

"What's this you're working on?" Lee asked, interested to see what the bells were for.

"It's an early warning alarm system I've rigged up," Doug answered.

"How does it work?"

"Well, I've hooked up these four bells to four tripwires that I've strategically placed outside the motor inn. Any walker so much as steps on one a bell will ring and we'll know there's a walker near and roughly where they're coming from." Doug replied, eager to tell Lee all about it.

"That's great!" Lee exclaimed. "Where'd you get the bells from, though?".

"Katjaa found them in a box under the desk in reception, I asked if I could have them since she wasn't gonna use them."

"I'm glad Duck didn't get his hands on these, he'd be ringing them like nobody's business! Would'a drawn walkers."

Doug chuckled. "No, I managed to get to them before he did!"

"I don't suppose I could interest you in some food, Doug?" Lee asked, extending the last packet of cheese and crackers to him.

"Actually, why don't you keep my share for today?" Doug said as he pushed Lee's hand back. "I know you said it didn't matter why you saved me and not Carley, but… I owe you a lot more than half a day's rations."

Lee shook his head, Doug was obviously still suffering from his survivor's guilt.

"Hey, if dough-boy doesn't want his food hand it this way!" A voice shouted from across the courtyard. Lee looked up to see Larry approaching the pair.

"It doesn't work like that Larry. **I'll** decide who eats not you."

Larry had closed the distance quickly and leant forward into Lee's face threateningly, "Well decide smart, you don't really want to piss me off do you?" At that, he turned and returned to work on the wall with Mark.

"Jesus…" sighed Doug. "Didn't he eat yesterday?"

"That he did. I'll see you later Doug" Lee said as he turned away and starting walking down the length of the wall towards where Mark and Larry were patching up a hole with a section of plywood. Larry was berating Mark for something or other as Lee arrived and he saw that Mark was barely managing to hold the plywood in place he was so weak. Well if Doug wasn't going to accept food Mark certainly would.

"Hey, Mark, fancy something to eat?" Lee called out as he held out the cheese and crackers. Mark eagerly took it.

"Thanks, Lee. I can barely stand!" Mark exclaimed as he took the food. The two of them were working on a pretty big hole that looked like it would take more than just them to patch it.

"Do you two need any help with that?" Lee asked.

Larry simply stated "Nope" without even looking up.

However, Mark looked down towards Lee's axe. "Actually we could use that axe of yours, it would be better than that rock" and indicated towards the stone Larry was using to hammer in some nails.

Larry stopped hammering and turned around. "Yeah, give us that thing for a bit".

Lee wasn't sure about giving Larry the axe but he complied because Mark was too weak to hold a board steady yet alone swing an axe. "Here, this should help, try not to make too much noise, though-"

"-yeah yeah" Larry spat as he snatched Lee's axe. "We're not stupid!"

"Come on Larry, give it a rest man," Mark stared him down. "Things are different, being a racist is outdated."

"Oh, that's what you think this?" Larry sneered at Mark. He turned to Lee and jabbed his finger in Lee's face "Is that what you've told him?"

"Yeah, that's right!" Lee told Larry defiantly, holding his ground.

Larry got close up to Lee's face, "Well, what're you gonna do about it?"

"Look, I don't care what it is," Mark's voice interjected, attempting to cool down the situation, "but you two have **got** to start getting along".

Larry slowly turned back to Mark, "Listen son, the only thing I **have** to do is protect my daughter. And right now that means fixing this damn hole, so I'd appreciate it if you two would shut up and let me get back to work.". With no other option than to leave Lee gave Mark a disapproving look and turned away.

He walked up to the front of the RV that Lilly was on to let her know that the rations had been handed out. She looked down and met his gaze. "Not such an easy job is it, Lee?"

"Never said it was," he sighed. "I don't envy you. I have no idea how you have the strength to do this every day."

"I don't have a choice" she replied sadly.

Lee went off to check on the teacher, he wanted to see if Katjaa would need any help when Kenny approached him and flagged him down. "Lee, I need to talk to you," Kenny said, as he beckoned for Lee to join him.

"Okay," Lee said as he met Kenny round the side of the RV. "What's this about?".

"You've probably heard that I'm thinking about leaving the motor inn," said Kenny.

"That I have, Mark told me earlier today"

"You've been good to me and my family. You saved Duck from those monsters at Hershel's farm and you stood up to Larry in the drugstore. I won't forget that. You and Clem are welcome to come with us."

"But we need you here, Ken! We have a better chance of surviving as a group," he reasoned.

"Our **best** chance of surviving is to find a boat and get away from the mainland. My mind is made up! Besides, we definitely can't survive here much longer, those things'll starve us out well before winter sets in."

"Okay, Kenny. Thank you, I'll certainly think about it. And I'm sorry I couldn't get you fed earlier, I ran out of-"

"-hey it was a tough choice and I know you didn't get to eat either. But you took care of my boy and that's what a real friend does." Kenny smiled. "I'm serious about that offer to come with us, though, you've more than earned a ride on the RV with me. Still, I guess some people aren't gonna be happy with your choices."

Suddenly Larry's voice boomed from just behind the pair, "You're out! What happened to **my** food!?"

"There's none left, Larry" Lee answered.

"You keep treating people like this and your days in this group are numbered!"

"You're one to talk old man," Kenny said coldly.

"Yeah? Well, I don't see you working on that wall!" Larry stormed off, outraged at the way he was being treated.

"I swear to god, I could swing for that man," Kenny muttered.

"Well don't," warned Lee. "That man could kick your ass 10 times over".

"He could kick your's t-"

"-Ken! Lee! Come here please!" Katjaa's voice rang out across the courtyard, interrupting their conversation. The pair went over to her and saw she was covered in the teacher's blood. The teacher himself lay dead on the back of Kenny's pickup truck.

"He didn't make it, did he?" Kenny asked solemnly.

"He… lost too much blood" she replied sadly.

"God dammit. I'm so sick of this shit!" Kenny exclaimed, chucking a spanner at a wall and storming off.

"Kenny, come back. There's nothing-"

"-just let him go Katjaa," Lee said.

"But.."

"He just needs time. It's been a rough morning."

"It's been a rough morning for everyone, not just him," she sighed. "That man you brought… I tried, but he was never going to survive."

"Well, at least he's not our problem anymore". It was a harsh thing to say, but Katjaa wasn't the sort of person to appreciate being beat around the bush with.

"What about the teenager you brought back, who's going to tell him?"

Lee looked over towards Ben, who still hadn't moved from his seat, still staring into space. He supposed he would have to do it himself, considering he was the one who cut the teacher's leg off. He was about to volunteer himself when he saw a dark mass moving behind Katjaa. The man who they thought had died grabbed Katjaa from behind.

" **SHIT, KATJAA!"** he shouted as she screamed for help. He got between the two and saw with horror that the man had been turned into a walker! He tried to pull them apart but the teacher was not letting her go, desperate to get a bite out of her. He pulled with all his strength and managed to get her free, he pushed the walker down onto the bed of the truck. " **THE AXE, HURRY!** " he shouted across the courtyard to Larry. He felt a great pull on his back as the walker toppled him into the back of the pickup. Lee grabbed its shoulders and desperately tried bashing it against the sides of the pickup, but the walker as too strong. It looked down at him, howling and snapping its jaws, pulling him in with its long cold arms.

"GET OUT THE DAMN WAY LEE!" Larry shouted as he prepared to swing his axe into the beast's head. Lee shoved the walker towards the front end of the pickup, smashing its head against the glass. Larry now had a clear shot and swung with all his strength, but too high. The axe hit just inches above the walkers head and embedded itself into the bodywork of the truck. Larry struggled to remove the axe as the walker came out of its stupor and once again attacked Lee who kicked at it, desperate not to let it sink its teeth into his flesh. The walker climbed on top of Lee, its jaws snapping at him, eyes like wildfire.

"I got 'em!" Doug exclaimed as he raised a wooden board above his head. He brought it down hard upon the walker, but the board just splintered over the walker's head, having no effect but to rain Lee with chunks of wood. Lee kicked the man off him and started backing up, trying to get as far away from it as possible. He moved backwards suddenly finding no metal under his hand as he toppled off the back of the pickup, the wind being knocked out of him. The walker, which had instantly resumed its attack on Lee, fell on top of him, crushing him with its weight. He pushed the walker's face away and stuck his thumbs into its eye sockets, doing anything to get it to stop. A lumpy red fluid covered his hands.

"LEE, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Larry ordered, he had freed the axe and was ready to swing again determined not to miss this time. Lee pushed the walker off to the side of him, holding its head out to Larry like an offering. Larry swung and hit the walker in the back of the head, the impact travelled down Lee's arms like a shockwave. The walker ceased its movement immediately.

Lee pushed the corpse off him and rested his head on the ground, heaving for breath. He could only manage to get out a quiet "thanks" to Larry.

"Why'd you bring him here in the first place asshole!?" Larry roared.

"Dad, calm down" Lilly pleaded.

"You're gonna get us all killed!" he continued, ignoring his daughter.

Kenny had run off during the commotion to fetch his rifle and when he returned he instantly started on Ben. " **You** said he wasn't bitten!"

"What?" Ben replied panicking.

"We asked you point blank 'Was he bitten?' and you said 'No'!"

"He wasn't!"

"Well, your 'not-bitten' teacher just came back to life and tried to **kill** my wife!"

"What?! Wait y'all don't know?" Ben asked, in disbelief.

"Don't know what?" Lilly exclaimed, everyone gathering around to hear what the teenager had to say.

"It's **not** the bite that does it!" he exclaimed. "You come back no matter how you die… if you don't destroy the brain that's just what happens. It's gonna happen to all of us."

"You're lying," Lee said in utter disbelief, how could this be true? People have been dying for millions of years without coming back as flesh-eating monsters, why would they start now?

"It's true, I swear it."

"Maybe he's right..." said Katjaa. "I didn't see any bites, and it would explain why there are so many of those things."

"Jesus Christ" Kenny added. "If you just die and that's all it takes, then shit, one fatal car crash turns a family of five into a family of walkers."

"All I can say is that I've seen people turn who I **know** were never bitten." Ben began, "When I first saw it happen we were all hiding out in a gym, and everybody thought we were finally safe. But one of the girls, Jenny Pitcher I think, I guess she couldn't take it. She took some pills, a lot of them. Someone went into the girls' room the next morning and… god..." Ben stopped, unable to finish his sentence.

The group stood in silence, each reflecting on what they'd just heard, their hopes for things to one day return to normal diminishing even further. The sound of a bell ringing drove everybody to crouch for cover, it was Doug's early warning system, there must be something approaching the motel. Lee thought that perhaps it might be walkers attracted by the commotion.

"Doug, it works!" Mark whispered.

"Of course it works, I told you it did," he whispered back. "That's the north road bell, something must be coming from that direction," he told the group, pointing down the road.

"I'll have a look," Kenny said before slowly sticking his head above the wall. "There's two men, definitely not walkers. They've got rifles," he said, returning his head below the wall.

"Are they people who raided your camp?" Lee whispered to Ben. The last thing the group needed was a raiding party.

Ben stuck his head above the wall. "I don't think so. But the bandits all had their faces covered so I don't know."

"There's just two of them, we need to make a stand." Kenny hissed to Lilly.

"No, we have a routine. We don't confront them if we don't have to" Lilly hissed back.

The two men's voices grew louder as they approached the motel, Lee could hear that they had thick Georgian accents.

"Sorry Lilly, we gotta do this..." Kenny whispered. He stood and took aim with his rifle, "THAT'S FAR ENOUGH!" he shouted at the pair.

"Oh **shit**!" Lee heard one of them cry. "Okay, okay… no problem!"

"We don't want any trouble!" Lee shouted as he stood up. Now that he could actually see them he saw that one of the two men was a lot bigger than the other, both in height and muscle mass, although even he still couldn't compare to Larry.

"Of course, neither do we!" the larger one replied. "I'm Andy St. John, this here's my brother Danny. We're just out looking for gasoline. Looks like you folks got the motel locked down… which is fine, but if you could spare any gas... well, we'd be much obliged!"

"What do you need gas for?" Lilly asked the pair.

"Our place is protected by an electric fence" Danny, the smaller one, shouted. "Generators provide the electricity..."

"Our generators run on gas," Andy clarified. "Look, we own a dairy farm a few miles up the road. If y'all be willing to lower your guns maybe we can talk about some kind of trade."

"How y'all doing on food? We got plenty at the dairy," asked Danny. The group was shocked, this seemed to be the answer to their prayers, perhaps they could food from these people and they wouldn't starve in a rundown motel.

However, Lee didn't trust them. Two men stumble upon them and are suddenly offering to take them to their farm with the promise of food? It seemed too good to be true. "I think we should stay here at the motel," he told the group. "We're starting to develop a good vibe here".

"A good vibe?" Larry laughed. "Well, Christ daddy-o, I'm sorry the folks with a food supply and **defences** didn't tickle your pretty pink ass!"

"We need to think like a group Lee," Mark reasoned. "This affects everyone".

"Then we vote," Lilly appealed. "If everyone agrees then we'll send you guys with some gas to check the place out".

"And if we don't?" Kenny asked.

"Then we'll stay in this wretched motel with your recreational paper weight over there," Lilly said as she gestured to the RV. "Kenny, Katjaa?"

Katjaa looked at her husband and nodded. Kenny smiled, "We go," he said.

"Dad?" Lilly asked.

"You betcha, pumpkin" he replied.

"Doug?"

"I say we go"

"Mark?"

"I'm in. I mean, if they're offering food, we gotta at least check it out."

Lee could tell he was clearly in the minority, but he still wanted to hear what Clementine had to say. "Clementine, what do you think?" he asked.

"Lee... I'm very hungry" she said.

"Alright" Lee sighed. "Looks like we're going to a dairy."

"Lee, why don't you and Mark check the place out and see if it's legit?" asked Lilly.

"I'll come too, it'll improve the numbers in case we run into anything dead," Doug offered.

"So.. uh, what are y'all thinking?" Andy shouted from outside the wall.

"You've got a deal" Lee replied. "We'll bring **some** gas to your dairy, in exchange you'll give us some food."

"Sounds fair, a couple gallons should power our generators for a while."

Kenny syphoned the gas from the RV whilst Katjaa invited the two men in. The brothers seemed friendly enough, they sat and chatted with Katjaa whilst Mark, Doug and Lee prepared to move out. Lee fetched his axe and prepared to say goodbye to Clem.

"Are you going now, Lee?" she asked.

"In a couple minutes. You stay safe, okay?"

"Okay Lee, you too" she smiled.

"Y'all ready to leave?" Andy asked once Doug had retrieved his stuff. The five of them had hardly exited the gate when the new kid caught up to them.

"Hey, is it alright if I come too?" Ben asked.

"Sure, mama loves seeing new faces!" Danny replied. And so the six of them set off down the road, eager to reach the dairy as soon as possible.


	2. Barns and Bandits Part I

**The Fortress St John**

 **Chapter 2 - Barns and Bandits Part I**

* * *

The group had been walking for about a quarter of an hour, currently down a road that ran through a forest. Ben, Mark and the St. John brothers leading the way with Lee and Doug bringing up the rear. Lee listened to the sounds of the forest, the gentle footsteps of the group and the conversation going on ahead of him. As tranquil as the forest was, after 3 months in the apocalypse Lee was keeping an ear out for any signs of danger, and he was sure the rest of the group was too. Lee had the fire axe with him, and although it weighed a ton he was glad to have a weapon unlike Doug.

"Thanks for coming along, Doug," said Lee.

"Sure!" Doug replied. "I'd like to get a look at that electric fence they talked about, it might give me some ideas of something I can rig up at the motor inn."

"Can an electric fence really stop walkers?"

"Well, as long as the walkers aren't completely dehydrated and the fence has enough juice, yeah, seems plausible," Doug reasoned. "The electricity basically cooks you from the inside out right?"

"I guess so..."

"So if a walker stays in contact with the fence for long enough it'll eventually cook its brain. Probably takes a while, though, and that can't be a good smell. Unless it smells like jerky... I could go for some jerky. Man, I should not have turned down that food you gave me earlier."

Lee laughed, "That is one runaway train of thought Doug!"

"Sorry," Doug chuckled, fiddling with a something in his hand.

"What's that you got there?", Lee asked.

"Oh, nothing. Just a laser pointer I picked up on our last trip to the drugstore."

"What do you need that for?"

"I dunno. I just like fixing things, you know that" Doug chuckled.

"Haha, yes I do." Lee laughed. "We've been quite lucky with those supply runs, though, not too many walkers about. I wouldn't count on that lasting forever."

"No, I wouldn't either. There did seem to be more walkers the last few times we went to Macon."

"Do you think there are any other survivors there?"

"I don't know." Doug sighed. "The drugstores been the same every time we left it right?"

"Yeah, I think so. I didn't see anything moved about or taken."

"I suppose, but the drugstore's just one building, we only see that small section of the town, could be people elsewhere."

"Maybe." Lee sighed. "I just hope if we run into anyone in the town they don't shoot on sight."

"Hey, people are still people, and people don't just turn into murderers, most are decent like us!" Doug reasoned. Lee felt a pang on guilt, he still hadn't told anybody about his past and where he was headed when the dead started to rise.

"You always look for the best in people, but there is some serious shit going on Doug. Apparently, that kid we've picked up-" Lee gestured towards Ben walking ahead, "-well their camp of school kids was attacked by a group of bandits. He said the bandits killed a bunch of them and that's why they were on the run. Who the fuck attacks and kills a bunch of kids?"

"Fuck.. that is messed up man" Doug sighed. "I hope we don't run into those bastards."

"Me too, Doug. Me too.."

The pair continued to follow the group ahead for a while, the thought of fresh food from the dairy cheering Lee up, he was seriously hungry and this hike was starting to take its toll on his body. His legs were beginning to feel like jelly and he felt a little ill. He eavesdropped on the conversation upfront, Mark was regaling the St. Johns with the story of how he met the group when they'd saved him at the air force base.

"So I'm by myself in the base with no weapon but my rifle," Mark had begun, "And I decide that this base is done for. I stuff a suitcase full of food and set off to leave. But on my way to the perimeter fence this one dead guy spots me and starts fucking chasing me across the field, and I can't use my rifle because all the others on the base will come after as well. So I've no choice but to run and I can't even run because of my suitcase of food, best I can do is a quick walk. So I'm quick timing the whole way across this field, with this asshole hot on my heels refusing to let up."

"So what happened?" Danny asks.

"That's when this lot found me, apparently they were checking out the airfield for help from the military, and they ran into me instead. Lee was the one who found me, spotted me hauling ass across the field. He ran over and bashed its brains in with that axe of his, he was the first living person I saw for weeks."

"I can attest for that" Lee called out from behind, joining the conversation. "He stank worse than a sewer!"

"I can imagine." Andy St. John chuckled as the group slowed and waited for the pair to catch up,

"So what happened then?"

"They took me back to the motel. My arrival was much the same as yours kid," Mark said to Ben. "The majority of the group not wanting to let me in, but when I showed them what was in my suitcase they let me stay."

"Hey, for the record I voted in your favour before I even learnt about the food," Doug added.

"That you did Doug," Mark replied. "Lilly and Larry were very against me joining, even with the food, said I couldn't be trusted."

"We soon managed to convince them otherwise, though," Lee added.

"Is that right?" Danny replied. "Sounds like they're not very trusting.".

"Actually they're not too bad", said Lee. "They just don't like new people very much, once they know you they're alright."

"To be fair to them though you can't trust everyone these days" Andy reasoned, the conversation coming to a close, "So Lee, why don't you tell us a little more about yourself?".

"Where you from?", Danny asked.

"Well I've lived in Athens for a few years but I grew up in Macon."

"Right here in the heart o' Georgia!" Andy smiled. "That's what I like to hear! What did you do before all this went down?"

"I was a professor at UGA, taught US history".

"Oh, you a historian?"

"Oh, I live and breathe it, loved it my entire life!"

"Hey Andy, don't we have some civil war memoirs from a great uncle or something?" asked Danny.

"Think so, they're probably in the attic somewhere," Andy replied. "I'm sure mama would lend them to you if you wanted."

"Oh yes please," Lee replied eagerly. "It's hard to find reading material nowadays. I assume he was a confederate?"

"Course, our family's lived in Georgia since they came to America. Would that be a problem?"

"Oh not at all," said Lee. "We can't understand history without hearing from both sides of the story."

"That makes sense," Andy replied.

"Y'all seemed to be settled in pretty tight at that motor inn, who's running things over there anyway?" Danny asked.

"We work as a group, all of us looking out for each other."

"I hear that!" Andy exclaimed. "There are so many dumbasses out there fighting each other for power, it's just stupid."

"How many people you got over there?" asked Danny.

"Nine, including the kids," Lee replied, not wanting to lie.

"You forgot Ben," Doug corrected. "He makes it ten."

"Really?" asked Ben. "I'm a part of the group?"

"I don't see why not," Doug reassured him.

Ben was about to reply when the sound of a heated argument exploded from just off to the right of the path. The group quickly took cover behind some trees and craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the argument. There were two men in a clearing, both armed, cursing their heads off at each other.

"They look like the people who raided my camp," Ben whispered.

"Fucking bandits," swore Danny.

"Who are they?" Lee hissed.

"Fucking assholes is who they are," Andy replied. "Don't worry, me and Danny have got you covered if something happens, but let's just wait this out and hope they move on."

The group watched and waited, listening intently to their argument. Both were wearing balaclavas and one had a shotgun, whilst the other had a crossbow.

"What are you talking about, I never stole no food!" one shouted.

"You and Gary are always pulling this shit. Don't think I haven't noticed!" the other yelled.

"Calm down, your paranoia's pissing everyone off!"

"Fuck you! You knew we were hungry! And you guys were keeping it all for yourself!"

"Yeah, and you know what? We ate it all and we enjoyed it! What are you gonna fucking do about it!"

The other man seemed to pause for a moment as if to consider what to say next. But he didn't say anything. Instead, he kicked him to the ground and emptied his shotgun into the man's stomach.

"FUCK YOU!" he screamed with every shot. "FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" The man shot until his gun ran dry before turning and leaving. "Asshole...".

With the man gone the group came out of hiding in stunned silence. It was Andy who finally broke it, "The world out here has gone to shit. Come on, let's get to the dairy where it's safe."

* * *

Clementine sat at the table in the RV, colouring in the picture book Lee had given her. It was a book of animals, the sort that you'd find in a zoo. There were lions and monkeys and lizards and all sorts of other things. She was colouring in a zebra's stripes when she found to her horror that her black felt tip was running out. She looked up to Duck who sat across from her colouring his own book, he had plenty of pens.

"Hey Duck?" she asked. "Could I borrow some of your felt tips?"

"Why?" he replied.

"My black one is running out."

"Okay, but don't break it."

"How would I break a pen? And anyway you're the one who broke my chalk."

"Hey that's not fair, the chalk breaks too easy"

"Well, it wouldn't if you didn't sit on it. You're too heavy" she giggled.

"That's because I'm strong, my dad says when I'm grown up I'll be strong enough to go fishing with him on his boat."

"Have you been fishing before?"

"I went with dad once on a lake. We sat all day and talked and caught loads of fish"

"Did _you_ catch anything?"

"Yea, I caught one this big!" Duck said, holding his hands far apart.

"There's no way you caught one that big, it's too heavy!"

"Uh huh, I did, isn't that right dad?" Duck asked his father, who had just entered the RV.

"What's this?" Kenny asked.

"When we went fishing, I caught one this big!" holding his hands out again.

"I don't remember it being that big Duck!" Kenny laughed. "More like this big," he said, as he held out his hands well under half the distance that Duck held his.

Duck pouted and stuck out his tongue. "It was!"

"If you say so Duck," Kenny laughed. "Hey Clementine, can you do me a favour?"

"What is it?"

"I need your little hands, I knocked a bolt I had resting on top the battery and it's gone down into a little nook. My hands too big to get it. I can see it I just can't reach it" Kenny explained.

"Oh okay," she replied as she stood up and followed him out and round to the front of the RV.

"Hmmm, wait here. I'm gonna get you a chair to stand on," said Kenny as he walked off into the motel.

Whilst Clementine waited she looked around and saw that the teacher that attacked Lee was gone, a trail of blood ran from the back of the truck to outside the wall. She thought back to what Ben had said, about the fact that no matter how you die you come back as one of those monsters. She couldn't make sense of it, how could you come back as one of those things no matter what way you die? When her grandparents had died they didn't come back as walkers, so what had changed since then? If it was true then beyond the wall must be even more dangerous than she thought, there must be hundreds of those things out there! She felt very worried for Lee. Her train of thought was interrupted by Kenny coming back and placing a chair at the head of the RV.

"Here you go, stand on this"

"What if I fall off?" she asked.

"Don't worry you won't. And I'll catch you if you do!" Kenny replied.

"Okay," she said as she climbed up onto the chair. She looked down into the workings of the RV, she had no idea how anybody could make sense of this complicated mess of machinery.

"You see it?" Kenny asked. He pointed down into the bowels of the RV. "That silver screw thing just there."

"I see it!" Clementine said excitedly. She rolled up the sleeve of her dress, not wanting to get it dirty from the oily RV. She was about to reach down for it when a thought crossed her mind. "Is it hot?" she asked.

"What?"

"My daddy tells me to never touch anything under the hood of a car without making sure if it's hot or not."

"Your daddy's a smart man. No, this thing hasn't been run in months, it's as cool as the air around us."

"Oh okay, I'll have a go then". She squeezed her right hand down into the RV and fumbled around for the bolt but it was ever so slightly out of her reach. She stood on tip toes to give herself a little more room, being careful to keep her balance. After stretching her arm as far as it could go she managed to grab it, she pulled her hand out and gave the bolt to Kenny. "Here you go" she smiled.

"Thanks, Clem!" replied Kenny. "You're a real help".

Clementine jumped down from the chair and saw her arm was covered in grease and muck. "Eww, my arms all dirty" she complained.

"Don't worry, wipe it off with this towel," Kenny said, passing her a clean towel from the motel. "And here's some water too," he said as he poured some water from his bottle onto her arm.

Clementine wiped her arm with it, getting rid of all the oil and grease on her arm. "Kenny, do you think Lee and the others are okay? They've been gone a whole hour."

"I'm sure they're just fine, Clementine," Kenny reassured her. "They know how to handle themselves, they'll be back before you know it I'm sure, with lots of food as well!"

"That's good, I am really hungry. I'm going to go back to colouring with Duck now."

"Okay Clem, thanks for the help," Kenny called out, as Clementine left to climb the steps back aboard the RV.

* * *

Half an hour after they left the motel the group finally arrived at the dairy, the first indication of which had been a barbed-wire fence, buzzing with electricity. The two brothers warned them not to touch it as they unlatched a gate and let the group through. The electric fence continued all the way around to the other side of a farmhouse, forming a perimeter a few hundred yards across, within which was contained the entire dairy. As they walked along the driveway Lee took in his surroundings in amazement, as well as the farmhouse there was also a barn with " _The St. John Dairy, Free tours!_ " printed on its roof in great white letters. The path they walked on was flanked on either side by a corn field and bales of hay were scattered all around.

"Here it is, the St. John family dairy," Andy smiled, proudly gesturing to the electric fence. "Y'all can see how we've kept this place so secure!"

"The fence really keeps them out?" Doug said, astonished at the size of it.

"You betcha!" Andy replied, "They fry like bugs on a zapper. We're pushing 4000 volts through that thing, with generators and amps."

"Oh wow!" Doug exclaimed clearly impressed. "You must know a thing or two about running wire?"

"Had a guy that did," said Andy.

"Ever had any accidents?" Lee asked, suspicious of Andy's use of the past tense.

"Nah", Danny replied.

"It's much safer in here than it is out there," Andy told the group.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lee spotted a red-haired woman approaching the group from the farmhouse, she was rather plump and didn't walk very fast. "I thought I saw y'all with company comin' down the drive!" she called out, her accent just as thick as the brothers'.

"Guys, this is our mama," Andy told the group.

"I'm Brenda St. John, and welcome to the St. John Dairy!" she said to them all as she joined them. "Andy, aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Sure thing, mama," Andy replied and soon got to the business of introducing the men to her, Lee was impressed that Andy remembered all their names, even Ben who had said hardly anything on the way there.

"And this is Lee," Andy said as Lee and Brenda shook hands. "He's from Macon."

"Oh, a couple of our old farm hands were from Macon!" Brenda told Lee. "They grow 'em good there!"

"And they've got a few more friends staying at the Travelier Motor Inn," Danny told his mother.

"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed. "That place is pretty vulnerable, have you got someone with survival experience in your group?"

"Well, we've got a few people who were in the military."

"Well that's good to hear, that motel ain't the safest place," she said worryingly. "Well now that y'all are here we can talk trade, I assume y'all are here to trade that gas for some food hmm?" she asked, pointing at the jerry cans they were carrying.

"Yes please, ma'am," Mark replied. "We are really very hungry"

"Well these are for y'all, baked fresh this morning," she smiled, holding out a wicker basket full to the brim with bread and biscuits.

"Holy MOLY!" Doug exclaimed wide eyed. Taking the basket eagerly he stuffed a particularly large biscuit into his mouth. "Oh they're delicious!" he said, mouth full, taking another.

"Slow down Doug, save some for the rest of us," Mark warned.

"Sorry.." Doug apologised, crumbs going everywhere. He held out the basket and the other three took some bread and biscuits.

"I'm glad you like them!" Brenda exclaimed, happy to see her baking being so complemented.

"That's the good stuff!", Danny told them. "Can't get that without a cow for fresh milk and butter that's for sure."

"That's right." Brenda agreed. "Hopefully Maybelle will make it through this bout of whatever she's got and be with us for a good long while."

"Your cow is sick?" Lee asked. "What's she-"

"-we have a vet!" Mark interrupted. "We could bring her here! We can help you folks out"

"A vet! Oh my!" Brenda sang happily, "Our prayers have been answered!"

"Maybe our whole group could come? For the day?" Mark asked eagerly.

"Well how about this, ya'll go get your veterinary friend, and I'll prepare some dinner. A big feast for all you hungry souls!" Brenda offered. "It's been so long since we've seen new faces. Danny, why don't you come help me out in the kitchen?"

"Sure thing mama," Danny replied, as he and Brenda walked into the farmhouse.

"I'll head back with the food and round everyone up for the trip back here," Doug offered.

"You should take someone with you," said Andy. "Those roads can be dangerous."

"No problem, Ben can come with me," Doug replied.

"Sure thing," Ben nodded.

"Take this," Mark said as he gave Doug his rifle, "we won't need it now that we're on this side of the fence."

"Alright, we'll see you later," Doug replied as he and Ben left the group, heading back to the motel.

"Mark, Lee, why don't ya take a look around?" Andy asked the pair. "And once ya get settled in I could use some help securin' the perimeter."

"Is there a problem?" Lee asked apprehensively.

"Sometimes the dead get all tangled up in the fence before they fry and end up knocking over a post. It'd be a big help if you two could walk the perimeter. I'm gonna go top off the generators before they run dry, come get me when you're ready to go."

"You betcha," Mark told Andy as he left, leaving just the pair of them. "This place is **incredible**!" he said excitedly to Lee. "It's got food! And that fence, oh man that fence! If we play our cards right this might turn out to be a place we can stay, so how do you want to play this?"

"Before we can even think of bringing our whole group here we should make sure this place is as safe as they're telling us," Lee replied.

"Right, obviously they think it's safe, but is it safe enough for the kids? I noticed a broken swing over there." Mark said. He pointed towards the swing, hanging from a tree near the farmhouse. "Not a big deal but maybe there're other things not working that we just can't see yet".

"We'll just have to keep an eye out Mark," replied Lee. "And checking the fence perimeter sounds like a decent way to get a look at their defences.".

"Alright, I'll keep my eyes open, and you find out what you can from Andy," Mark said as he went to check out the barn.

Before talking to Andy, Lee went to assess the swing. The board seemed to have been snapped in two and only one rope was connecting it to a tree branch. The break in the board was sharp and jagged, it was clearly a specific event that had broken it and not general wear and tear. Lee decided that he should do his best to try and fix this swing, not only would Clementine _love_ it but it would prove to the St. Johns that they could pull their weight. He went off in search of some planks of wood, he reasoned there must be some around due to the repairs that electric fence must need. Soon afterwards he found what he was looking for by the small yellow generator Andy was topping up, however, it was far too long and would need cutting down to size.

"Hey, Andy?" called Lee. "You mind if I cut up one of these boards?"

"Already makin' some repairs huh?" Andy quizzed. "I like a guy who takes some initiative! Sure, go right ahead."

Lee placed the plank down and started to cut it right across the middle. Due to him being so weak it took him a little while longer than he would like, his head spun a little and he felt very hungry. Perhaps he should have taken something to eat earlier. After struggling with it for a minute or so the two halves soon pulled apart and Lee had the perfect sized board for the swing.

"Andy, you know where any rope is?" Lee asked as he passed Andy on his way to the swing.

"Can't say I do, Lee. Maybe mama will know?" Andy replied. "What you need a rope and plank of wood for anyway?"

"I'm thinking of fixing that swing over there.".

"Oh that old thing, the kids used to like it more than the tour sometimes!"

"I'll bet!" Lee exclaimed. "I'm sure my Clementine would love it too."

"Clementine? She your daughter?"

"Oh no we're not related - she's just the little girl I've been taking care of since this all started," Lee confided. "How'd that swing break anyway?"

"Got busted the first day those things showed up... thank god no one was on it at the time."

"Thank god indeed. Need any help with that generator there?"

"No, I got it, the bastards always breaking. I seem to be spending half my life fixing this god damn thing."

"I'll leave you to it then Andy, catch you in a sec I'm gonna go looking for that rope"

Lee made his way up to the porch of the farmhouse, it was two stories tall and looked exactly like Lee imagined a farmhouse to look like, quite small but very cosy. Next to the front door was a big display of certificates the dairy had won back in the day, some dating all the way back to the 1980s! As well as the swing down in the yard there was a large rocking bench up here as well which Lee reasoned would become very popular amongst Duck and Clementine. He opened the fly screen and knocked on the door, steps came from within the house and Brenda soon answered the door.

"Oh hi there, Lee!" she said. "What can I do for ya sweetie?"

"Hello Brenda, you wouldn't have a rope lying around I could use would you?"

"I'm sure there's one in the boys' old toy box," she said opening a large chest at one end of the porch, "Ah yes, here you go sweetie! What do you need it for?"

"I'm gonna try fix up that swing of yours," Lee told her.

"Oh my, that's awful kind of you," she exclaimed. "You know I used to push Andy and Danny on that swing every night when they were kids, seems like such a long time ago now.."

"Yeah, it does," agreed Lee. It'd only been about a quarter of a year since it all started but it felt like much much longer. "How's your family been holding up since... you know?"

"Oh my boys have been my saving grace, they both quit their jobs and came home to help out after the attacks started happening," she said smiling. "I think it was hardest on Andy, Dan's always been a bit of a mama's boy, but don't tell him I said that!"

"Don't worry, your secret's safe Brenda. Thanks for the rope I'm gonna try and see if I can fix this swing now, I'll see you later."

Lee headed back down the path towards the broken swing, he loosened the existing rope's grasp on the board and quickly replaced it with his own fresh board. However he couldn't figure out a way to get the other rope over the branch, it was far too high and he was not even going to try to climb it in his starved state. He attempted to throw it but whatever he did the rope either didn't reach or slipped back down, it was then that he had a great idea. He tied the rope to his axe and threw it over the branch, it went up and over and its weight brought the loose end of the rope back down the other side of the branch. Taking the axe off of the rope he then tied the rope to the seat but he didn't know his knots very well, he resigned to leaving it as a bit of a botch job and would ask Kenny to look over it when he got here, his years on the sea should certainly make him an expert with bends and hitches.

Lee decided that now was as good a time as ever to walk the perimeter, he wanted to see how effective it was. If the group was going to come to visit he wanted to make sure they were all as safe as possible.

"Hey Mark," Lee greeted.

"Hey Lee, so what have you found out, is this looking like a good place to stay?"

"I haven't checked out the barn yet, I'll do that when we get back. And the generator might be a problem, Andy said it's tricky to repair and it takes him a while. Still, it's a hell of a lot better than the motor inn."

"Are you ready to go then?" Mark asked.

"Sure am," Lee replied. The pair walked over to Andy to let him know they were ready to start checking the perimeter, he was still working on the generator. As they approached he stood and brushed off his hands.

"Hi Andy," Lee greeted, "I managed to fix the swing.".

"Well I'll be damned, momma's gonna be thrilled to see that old thing all fixed up!" Andy said appreciatively. "Well, I'm glad that you guys decided to help us out."

"We're just glad to get a decent meal in us," said Mark.

"I bet you are," Andy agreed. "I noticed back at the motel you folks are pretty well armed, you been stockpiling huh?"

"Yeah, if you need some extra people to protect the dairy you can count on us," Mark offered.

"Well hopefully it'll never come to that, but thanks!" said Andy.

"An electric fence is really enough to keep out walkers? Lee asked.

"Walkers? Is that what you call them, that's good!" laughed Andy. "The old one wouldn't have but Mac, he was our foreman, he figured out how to amp it up with the generators. We used to sit out here some nights and watch the sons of bitches sizzle and pop when they get too close. Closest thing to entertainment these days I guess."

"Sounds like a morbid kinda entertainment," said Lee. "Well, Mark and I are free to help you with the perimeter now."

"Oh good! The fence will stop a walker in about three or four seconds but it gets overloaded if we leave the husks out there, so all we need to do is just push 'em off."

"You know, Mark and I can clear the fence ourselves if you want to stay here and finish up with the generators?"

"Well, that'd be great!" Andy said appreciatively. "I'll turn off the north-west section and if you guys could strip 'em off and look for any weak points that'd be a big help."

"Sure thing, it sounds easy enough", said Mark.

"Stay attentive, you never know," Andy warned. Lee nodded and the pair headed off and through the gate out into the field. Lee looked at the fence that surrounded them and tried to figure out where they were supposed to go, the hike here had thoroughly disorientated Lee and he had no idea which way north-west was.

"Hey, Mark? Which way is north-west?" Lee asked.

"It's this way, let's go," replied Mark, you could always rely on his keen sense of direction. "So how's the place looking, is it safe enough for us to stay?"

"It's pretty amazing what they've done with this dairy, but let's see what it takes to secure this fence before drawing any conclusions."

"I can't wait until everyone is out here! Well... everyone besides Larry."

"Why the hell did you tell him I thought he was a racist? As if tensions weren't high enough!"

"I'm sorry man, it just... popped out"

"I try to be civil at least!"

"Well hopefully he'll calm down once he's out here." said Mark.

The pair had soon walked the hundred yards to the fence and began to walk along it, the lights on the fence posts were off and Lee reasoned that meant the fence was too. Just beyond the fence was the rest of the forest, a beautiful deep orange now that autumn was in full bloom.

"I can't wait for Clementine to get here, she'll love it!" Lee told Mark.

"I'm sure she will, especially since you fixed that swing."

It was the smell that first alerted the men to a walker corpse. They found it draped over the fence a little further on, a bird pecking at the dead man's flesh.

"There's one. Eeugh!" Mark said, pinching his nose. Lee kicked its foot, checking to see if it was going to suddenly pounce. "Lee, it's dead"

"Come on, let's push it off", grumbled Lee.

"There's no way I'm touching him," Mark exclaimed. "Who do you think he was?".

Lee examined the corpse more closely, it could be anybody. Its clothes were torn in places and there were deep gouges in its neck, presumably where the poor man was bitten. The skin was red and rotten, and the mouth had peeled away to reveal a set of black teeth. "It doesn't matter," he told Mark. "I'm just glad it's not one of us." Lee rested the head of his axe against the corpse's chest and pushed him off the fence; it fell harmlessly to the ground. "Come on, I'm sure there's still a few more."

"Once this fence is patched up this place'll be a fortress!" Mark said as the two continued down the fence line. "God, can you imagine not having to worry about the walkers anymore?"

"Yeah, well it's useless with gas," Lee said ambivalently. "We might need food, but the St Johns need gas too".

"Not many drivers these days Lee, we could scrounge up a year's worth of gas easy. So what's your take on the brothers, they seem to have this place tied down pretty well?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I dunno, they seem decent enough. I just want you to know I've got your back if anything goes down, that's all."

"Well thanks I guess," said Lee, glad to have Mark backing him. Lee spotted another walker on the fence, "Look there's another one."

"I see it, same drill?"

"Sure." Lee rested his axe into the walker's chest again and pushed. But this time the walker slumped backwards with its hands still connected to the fence. "Man, the fence burned right into its hands, it looks like they fused together!"

"Oh man, that is so not cool!" Mark exclaimed. With no other option, Lee raised his axe and brought the axe through the walker's wrists, leaving two disembodied hands clinging to the wire and the rest of the walker in a heap on the floor.

"You're on a roll, that's the second time you've performed an amputation today!" Mark chuckled.

"Seriously Mark?"

"Sorry, poor taste." Mark apologised. "You never get used to the smell do you?"

"Nope," said Lee, the undead stench penetrating his nose. They moved away and were soon able to breathe again.

"Christ, I can't stop thinking about dinner! Thanks for the rations earlier, it's not easy eating in front of the kids but it's all that's keeping me on my feet right now."

"I'm hungry too, Mark."

"Do you think they're gonna be good for it? Dinner for a whole group of people?"

"If they got as much food as they say, I think so."

"Hey, I think I see where they're getting in," Mark said, pointing to a knocked over a section of fence. "This one must have knocked it over trying to get through, he's tangled up in there pretty good. Come on, help me get this thing back in place so we can get Mr Crispy out of there!"

Lee looked at the knocked-over fence, it hadn't fallen inwards but outwards, making it incredibly difficult to pull it back into place from this side. The two of them each grabbed a fence post but struggled to no avail to right it.

"I think we'd getter better leverage from the other side," Lee told Mark.

"Good idea!" Mark said and jumped across. Lee didn't jump but stepped his way carefully across the downed fence, cautious not to trip on the barbed wire. He braced his back against a fence post and heaved upwards, the fence slowly coming back into place.

"Now how do we get Mr Crispy out of there?" Mark asked.

THWIP!

An arrow shot through the air and embedded itself in Mark's back, "OH FUCK!" he screamed. A cacophony of noise and arrow fire erupted from the tree line and rained down upon the two men. Mark doubled over in pain whilst Lee looked for any refuge from the kill zone, he spotted a nearby tractor and practically dragged Mark to take cover behind it. Arrows flew over their heads and bounced off the tractor as an army of men taunted and jeered at them from the treeline.

"WE HAD AN AGREEMENT, NOW YOU'RE FUCKED!"

"WE TOLD YOU WHAT WOULD HAPPEN YOU SONS OF BITCHES!"

"Lee! Who the fuck are these people?" Mark hissed in pain.

"I have no idea!"

"Well, they're pissed off enough to kill us!"

"Are you alright?" Lee asked tensely.

"I should be fine, I don't think it's too deep. We should jump the fence and run back to the St Johns, they've got rifles."

"Are you mad, we can't jump the fence?!"

"Why the hell not? It's not on!"

"It's barbed wire, Mark. You'll rip yourself to shreds trying to scramble over that!" hissed Lee as an arrow clanged dangerously on the metal just above his head.

"Well, how we gonna get back then?"

"I dunno, give me a sec." Lee scanned the fence, looking for a way to get in. He spotted a gate a little down the way, "There, through that gate."

"Hello?! We'll be shot before we even make it halfway!" Mark criticized.

"Hey, this tractor has wheels doesn't it? Let's get it moving!" Lee responded curtly. He braced himself against it and pushed but to no avail, the tractor would not budge. "It's stuck."

"You won't be able to push it whilst its connected to the plough, can you get it off?" Mark asked.

Lee stuck his head around the back of the tractor looking for a way to disconnect the plough. He saw a lever on the coupling and pulled it which, instead of disconnecting the plough, caused the plough's blades to be lifted up out of the ground. A close miss from an arrow drove Lee back into cover, but now that the blades were lifted from the dirt the tractor slowly rolled forth down the gentle slope parallel to the fence. Mark and himself used the tractor as moving cover, keeping away from the whizzing arrows that threatened to spear them both. Suddenly the tractor halted, well short of the gate.

"Shit, it's one of the walkers we pushed down earlier!" Mark hissed.

Lee looked forward and saw the cadaver of a walker under the wheels of the tractor. He grabbed it by its feet and pulled it free from the path of the tractor, which quickly resumed its rolling pace. They continued down the length of the fence when yet another walker blocked their path.

"How many of these things did we push over?" asked Mark, clearly in a lot of pain.

Once again Lee went forth to remove the dead walker, he gripped its arms tight but to his horror the walker gripped back! It came alive and howled at him, pulling his arms towards its snapping teeth. Lee tried desperately to pull his arms away from the walker and as he did the combination of the tractors weight and Lee's struggles pulled the walker apart, leaving it as just a torso and a pair of unmoving legs. Gray intestines spewed forth out on the ground. Lee swung the still living torso out from underneath the tractor's wheels and hurled it far behind them. The tractor once again started to move and the pair followed it closely, taking shelter from the rain of arrows. Lee could hear orders being barked amongst the group in the woods and a steady stream of insults directed at them.

"YOU ASSHOLES DESERVE TO DIE, DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD FUCK WITH US?!"

"YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER!"

Lee looked back to see in horror that the torso of a walker was still chasing them, using its arms to crawl along the ground. It left a trail of gore behind as it howled and snapped at them catching up quickly, but was suddenly stopped by a stray arrow piercing its temple, killing it instantly. The tractor soon reached the gate which Lee kicked open, and the pair quickly rushed through.

"YOU LUCKY SONS OF BITCHES, GO AHEAD AND RUN, WE AIN'T GOING NOWHERE!"


	3. Barns and Bandits Part II

**The Fortress St John**

 **Chapter 3 - Barns and Bandits Part II**

* * *

Mark and Lee sprinted to the farmhouse at full pelt, never slowing down. Arrows continued to whizz past them and embed themselves in the ground around them. Lee called out to Andy desperately as they ran across the field, "THE FENCE, GET THE FENCE ON!"

Andy looked up in shock at the pair, confused as to what could have happened whilst they were out there. He ran from the barn to the generator and quickly pulled the ripcord causing the fence to come to life with electricity. "What the hell happened?" he asked as the pair bent over in exhaustion, heaving for breath. He saw with horror that there was an arrow embedded in Mark's back.

"Holy shit! Are you okay?" Danny asked worried.

"It was a goddamn ambush out there!" Lee shouted angrily. "I thought you said it was safe here!"

"Bandits? Here? On our property?" Andy asked dumbstruck.

"Oh my Lord! What happened to you, sweetheart?!" Brenda exclaimed running down from the house.

"It was those bastards from the woods, mama!" Andy explained.

"Yeah... I'll be alright once it's out but **goddamn** it hurts!" Mark exclaimed, bent over in agony.

Unfortunately, it was at just this moment that the rest of the motel group came down the driveway towards the farmhouse. They were Kenny, Katjaa, Duck, Lilly, Larry and Clementine. They gazed around at the dairy in amazement, marvelling at the defences. They called out their 'hello's and 'how are you's but as they got closer their faces turned from delight to horror as they saw Mark's wound.

"Oh my god, what happened!?" Katjaa exclaimed.

"He got shot with an arrow," Lee answered.

"Christ, are you gonna be okay?" Kenny asked Mark.

"Yeah... I'm fine. I should just... pull it out" Mark said, gripping the shaft of the arrow, preparing to remove it.

"Oh no honey!" Brenda said as she rushed forth to aid him. "Brenda's got you, c'mon inside now. We'll have you all sorted out!". She whisked him away up the path to the farmhouse, Katjaa went with them, explaining she was a vet.

"What kind of shit is this? What happened?" Larry demanded.

"We were checking the fence for walkers and got ambushed by this group of bastards from the woods," explained Lee. "They were going on about you breaking some agreement? What agreement?" Lee asked the brothers urgently.

"Well they gave us a lot of trouble in the beginning," began Andy. "Killed a bunch of our farmhands. We were able to get 'em to stop by makin' a deal"

"You **knew** about these people?!" Kenny said flabbergasted.

"Food for protection," Danny spoke up. "Not like we had much of a choice, but they did stop hasslin' us."

"God dammit!" Larry roared. "Doug said this place was safe!"

"Maybe it isn't as safe here as we thought," sighed Lee.

"We've never had them screw with us like this! Not since we started givin' 'em food," Andy looked up in concern at the group around him. "If I knew you guys were in any danger, any danger at all, I would never have sent you out there alone. Listen, we may have had an agreement with those bastards, but we will **not** stand for this shit!"

"Ain't no way we're gonna let those sons of bitches get away with this!" Danny added.

"You know where these assholes are?" Kenny asked.

"They're hard to pin down, but I think I know where one of their camps are," explained Danny.

"When you're ready to come scope it out, come find us."

"Oh and before I go, have a look at what Lee fixed up for you, kids," Andy quickly added before running up to the farmhouse.

"Oh, a swing! I love swings! Just like at my old treehouse!" Clementine squealed. Lee had almost forgotten that she and Duck had been listening to the entire conversation. The two of them ran off quickly, eager to get the first go. "Thanks, Lee! You're the best!" she called out as she ran.

"Bandits? Are you serious?" Lilly began now that the St Johns had left. "This place isn't safe, we cannot stay here!"

"Not safe?! This place is a hell of a lot safer than that motor inn, I think all of us and our guns can handle a couple of punks with bows and arrows!" Kenny retorted. "What we need to do is find a way to get our whole group here to stay. Take this place over if we have to."

"Cool your head, rambo, these are nice people," Larry reprimanded. "Let's not do anything to get us thrown out before we eat!"

"I'm gonna head out and help deal with those bandits," explained Lee. "You guys should try to make friends with Andy and Brenda while I'm gone."

"Well that's easy," Larry laughed. "I got charm coming outta my ass!"

"Yeah, that's... real charming, dad."

"Where are Ben and Doug?" Lee asked.

"Since Doug ate **half** the biscuits on the way to get us I had them stay back," explained Lilly. "I still don't think we should be trying to stay here and someone's gotta watch the motor inn whilst we're gone."

"Well now that we know the ball plan let's get on with it," Lee told them all. They dispersed, Lilly and Larry going to make themselves comfortable in the gazebo by the barn whilst Kenny went to play with his son.

There was no reason not to go immediately but Lee still wanted to have a little catch-up with Clementine before he left. He'd been finding recently that he looked forward to their chats more and more; as he made his way over to the swing he saw that Kenny was pushing Duck on it much higher than Lee would dare push Clementine for fear of scaring her.

"Hey Clem, do you like the swing?" Lee asked.

"Yeah! It's fun, thanks for fixing it Lee!" she sang happily.

"No problem, I'm just glad you like it."

"Will you push me on it please?"

"Sure, happy to push you on the swing." he smiled. "Mind if Clementine takes a turn?" Lee asked Kenny.

"Sure thing, come on Duck let's let Clementine have a turn," Kenny said to his son, much to his son's dismay. Duck jumped down and ran around the yard letting off steam. Clementine hopped on the swing and Lee was soon pushing her gently.

"So how are you holding up, Clementine?" Lee asked softly.

"I'm okay I guess, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little worried about Mark."

"Is Mark going to be okay?"

"Yeah, he will be. He got lucky out there, could've been a lot worse."

"Are you going to find the people who hurt Mark?"

"Yes, we have to make sure they don't hurt anybody else."

"Be careful, I want you to stay lucky..." Clementine said, clearly worried.

"Don't you worry Clementine," Lee said reassuringly. "Ever since I met you I've had good luck!"

"Okay," Clementine smiled. "Don't you think the dairy is pretty? It reminds me of how things used to look before."

"Yeah it does," Lee replied. Even with this bandit problem the dairy was absolutely wonderful, even if they couldn't stay here they might at least get some food.

"Do you think things will ever get back to how they were before?" Clementine asked him.

"I'm not sure, Clem. I hope so." Lee replied. He had always made a point of never lying to her; if she was mature enough to ask the question she was mature enough to hear an honest answer.

"I hope so too." she said longingly.

"But don't worry, Clem. We're safe here now."

"As long as the bad people don't get me too, right?"

"I won't let what happened to Mark happen to you." he said softly.

"Promise?"

"I promise," he replied. He pushed her for a little while longer, enjoying the afternoon breeze on his face. "Alright Clem, that's enough for now. I really should be going off with Danny."

"Okay, thanks for pushing me!"

"Of course!" said Lee. "Duck it's all yours!" he informed the boy, much to his unending delight.

"Alright, Duck. Don't pop a gasket." Kenny said as he followed behind the boy.

Lee ran up to the porch of the farmhouse where Andy and Danny were pouring over a map laid out on the floor. "Hello fellas," he greeted.

"Oh hey Lee," replied Andy. "How are ya feeling? I'm real sorry for what happened to Mark, I should never have sent you out alone."

"No shit," Lee retorted, annoyed that Andy's indiscretion had ended with an arrow in Mark's back.

"You saw what they did to your buddy," Danny replied, ignoring Lee's comment. "We're not safe here until we fight back and let them know we're not to be messed with."

"How are we going to do this?" asked Lee.

"Me and Andy have decided that you and I should go out and do some recon," explained Danny. "Once we've found their base we'll all mount up for some revenge."

"Hell yeah!" commented Andy.

"But who the fuck are these people in the woods?" Lee asked, wanting to find out what the brothers knew about these people.

"We don't really know," explained Andy. "We think some of 'em used to work at the supermarket up the way."

"Save-lots," added Danny.

"Yeah," continued Andy. "Anyway, they're nutty as all hell and get mad when they're hungry."

"So whilst Danny and I are out searching the woods what are you going to do Andy?"

"I'm gonna stay here and hold down the fort," replied Andy. "Here, take my hunting rifle. Don't use it unless you have to."

"That's right, we're just doing reconnaissance for now. No use getting ourselves killed."

"Sure thing," replied Lee, taking the rifle from Andy.

"You know how to work it?" Andy asked.

"Yes I do, Mark has one just like it."

"You ready to go?" said Danny.

"Yes let's do this, we gotta work together on this. These bandits are a danger to both our groups," reasoned Lee.

Lee slung the rifle over his back and followed Danny off the porch. As he walked across the farmyard he heard the footsteps of someone running and turned to see Clementine chasing him down.

"Are you going now, Lee?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll be back soon Clementine. Don't you worry," he smiled.

"Please be lucky."

"I will. Now you stay in sight of Kenny you hear?"

"Okay, Lee."

Lee and Danny made their way through the front gate and immediately went off the path into the thick woodland. Danny led the way with a pocket compass as Lee kept his head on a swivel, looking out for anybody that might be a danger, be they dead or alive.

"Okay, we just gotta keep in this direction for about a mile and we should find them," Danny explained.

"Do you think it's their whole camp or just a smaller one?" Lee asked.

"I think a smaller one, their main camp is probably someplace else."

"How did you find this camp anyways?"

"I was hunting when I stumbled on it. Thought it best to leave quickly because I didn't want to antagonise 'em. So that little girl, she's not your daughter is she?"

"Nah, she's just a girl I promised to take care of. How could you tell I wasn't her dad?"

"She called you by your name," Danny explained. "No daughter calls her dad by his own name. Where are her real parents?"

"They went to Savannah on holiday just before this all went down."

"Savannah? I heard on the radio that it's as messed up as Atlanta was."

"Yeah," Lee sighed. "It doesn't bode well."

"I see you handle that gun we lent you pretty well, you a hunter?"

"No, but Lilly keeps us all on a regular training schedule."

"Sounds like Lilly's running this democracy of yours," chuckled Danny.

"Teaching us how to use guns and being in charge are two very different things," reasoned Lee. They walked in silence for a while before a question struck Lee like lightening. "Hey Danny, have you heard of anybody who turned who was definitely never bitten?"

"No, have you?"

"I think so, earlier on today we found a man in a bear trap and had to cut him out. That's where we met the new kid Ben, the man was his teacher. We took him back to the motel but he died of blood loss and reanimated and attacked Katjaa. We didn't see any bites on him and Ben insisted that this wasn't just a freak occurrence and that it'd been happening to anybody who died, not just bite victims."

"No, I haven't heard of that at all. We've had a few people die at the farm but they were all killed by the dead so I don't know. It doesn't make any sense, though, why would they just come back?"

"Well according to Ben we're all infected already, as long as our brains are intact we'll all come back."

"Jesus Christ... they did just seem to just rip through communities like wildfire, we saw it all go down on the news. It would explain why there's so many. What do you think?"

"I honestly don't know what to think anymore, Danny, I haven't had much time to. You stumbled on us pretty much immediately after it happened."

"Well don't get too lost in your thoughts, we need to stay alert. Come on, we're burning daylight."

* * *

The pair were silent, looking for any signs of human habitation. Danny had announced they were nearing the place and they had raised their rifles. Lee stepped through the thick underbrush slowly, being careful not to make any noise.

"You see anything?" Danny asked.

"Not yet," Lee whispered. He listened carefully for voices, a camp of young men should surely make a lot of noise but there was nothing in the air but the sound of birds tweeting and wood creaking.

"I know it's around here, it's gotta be close," muttered Danny.

As Lee walked along his foot collided with something metal, he looked down and saw an opened soup can. He knelt down and examined it, its contents had been picked clean. He looked up at Danny who simply nodded, they stood up and continued to search. Lee had no doubt in his mind now that there was indeed somebody living in the area; where and how many though he couldn't tell. As they passed through the bushes Lee spotted signs of habitation in a clearing not 20 yards away.

"Over there," he hissed.

"Oh shit, you found it!" Danny replied. They kneeled and examined the campsite through the scopes of their rifles. This was clearly not the main campsite as there was only a single tent. However there were a couple of tables piled with boxes and cans of food, and between them was a smouldering campfire.

"Look at the campfire," said Danny. "Somebody has been here very recently and they may still be here."

"I don't see anybody, though," said Lee. "Want to check it out?"

"Yes I do, maybe they have a map or something that has the main base on it?" replied Danny. The two of them slowly approached the campsite keeping their rifles raised and heads on a swivel. They reached the edge of the clearing and Danny signalled for Lee to halt. "Do you see anybody?" he whispered.

"No, it looks empty as far as I can tell," whispered Lee.

"Watch my back Lee, I'm going to check the tent," hissed Danny. He stood and entered the campsite, careful not to make a noise. As he manoeuvred his way around the campfire and towards the tent Danny kept his rifle pointed right at the entrance. Lee scanned the dense forest around the campsite, preventing anything from sneaking up on the pair. Danny reached the tent and quickly pulled back the flap. "It's clear, nothing in here but sleeping bags" he announced. "This camp is too small, it can't be their main base."

"That's what I was thinking too," concurred Lee. "Let's have a look around and see what we can find out." Lee walked over to one of the tables to check out the boxes, all of them were labelled Save-Lots. He opened one of them up but there was nothing inside but a bunch of empty cans. "Hey Danny, these boxes are all from Save-Lots."

"So are the ones on this table," Danny replied. "This must definitely be one of their camps". Lee started to open up all the boxes, eager to find one that still had some food inside. He soon found a box that was still sealed and promptly sliced it open with his knife.

"Jackpot! This one's got canned food!" Lee announced.

"Take it, they've stolen enough of our shit already," Danny growled. Lee continued to search the boxes when one at the back caught his eye, it was labelled 'St. John Dairy'.

"Hey, there's one here from the dairy, it's empty though," said Lee.

"Probably the food we've been giving them," sighed Danny. "The fuckers have crossed the line."

"What's in the tent?" asked Lee.

"Two sleeping bags, one of 'em is kid-sized."

"Jesus! There's a kid mixed up in all of this!" Lee exclaimed.

"I don't know, they don't seem like the type to keep kids around."

Lee walked over to the tent and entered. There was indeed a child's sleeping bag, atop of it lay a teddy bear and a photo of a little girl and a woman. Lee felt very sorry for this little girl, she seemed to be a bit older than Clementine but still too young to be anywhere near to this brigade of murderous thugs. Something under the adult's sleeping bag caught his eye, he lifted it up and brought it into the light. He saw to his terror that it was a familiar blue and white baseball cap.

"Don't you fucking move!" a female voice shouted from outside the tent. Lee spun around to see a woman pointing a crossbow at him, her eyes were wild and her face was covered in dirt. As he looked closer he could see she was the woman from the photo. "Put your guns down!" she commanded. Lee jumped out of the tent and raised his rifle at the woman. She swung her crossbow between both him and Danny. "I ain't going back! You tell 'em Jolene ain't going back!"

"Hey! We had a deal!" exclaimed Danny. "No shooting as long as we gave you food! What the fuck happened?!"

"You had a deal with **them**! I ain't them!" she spat. "You trying to take those boxes hmm? You come into my home and go through my belongings and steal my food?! You're no better than the monsters. I know what you are!"

"You don't know me!" Danny retorted.

"You want to steal my shit! You steal everything from me!"

"We had a deal, you people broke it first!" Danny exclaimed.

"Who the fuck are you?" Lee asked, finger wrapped around the trigger of his rifle.

She laughed manically at the two of them then her voice went cold as ice. "Now maybe you didn't hear me last time, when I asked you sweet... but put your damn guns down!" she screamed. "You think I won't kill you? I'm gonna take this here crossbow and put a nice sharp arrow right through your eyeball and into your **goddamn** brain! You're not men, you're monsters! All men are monsters! Take what they want and then destroy it all! Take a can of beans... take my little girl... it's all the fucking same to you!"

"Where did you get this hat?" Lee demanded, holding up Clementine's hat.

"The little girl." she replied.

"You **stole** it from her!" Lee growled.

"So what if I did? You stole her from me!" she shouted back.

"What the fuck are you talking about? I'm the one protecting her, she's never even met you!"

"You know what? I've changed my mind. I'm putting this arrow right through your **balls** ," she ranted. "Yeah! Right through! I'm gonna string 'em up on that tree! And then I'm gonna head down to that farm and kill every person I see."

"Look, there's two of us and only one of you," Danny reasoned. "No matter what happens one of us is gonna kill you."

"Like you could kill me? They couldn't kill me, but they tried all right! I'm not gonna let myself get killed by a farm boy and a professor!"

"How the fuck do you know I'm a professor?" Lee shouted. "How did you get this hat?!"

She continued ranting unperturbed, "You think you're safe, boy? I'm gonna kill both of you and head down to that farm of yours and kill everyone last person I see. You think a fence is gonna stop me? I'm gonna take that little girl of yours and I'm gonna-"

Lee's eardrums rang before he even realised he had pulled the trigger. Her forehead caved from the force of the bullet and she crumpled to the ground lifeless. Her crossbow lay by her side and blood seeped from the wound in her head.

"Shit! What the hell did you do that for?" Danny exclaimed. "We could'a gotten information from her!"

"She was about to kill us both!" Lee reasoned.

"You could have just taken her down, you didn't have to kill her!" Danny retorted. "I mean I know she was mental but... damn!"

"I don't know what happened, I just pulled the trigger," said Lee, his voice failing him. His hands shook with adrenaline.

"It's a clean shot, though, right through the forehead, that's good shooting right there. Still... what a waste." Danny sighed. "I'm gonna search the rest of these boxes, you should search her to see if she's got anything we could use."

Lee knelt next to the woman's body. She was wearing a Save-Lots uniform which had the words _'Can I help you with anything?'_ printed on the back. Lee started to go through her pockets, but there wasn't much in them. All he found was a small purse, a Polaroid photo of the little girl and a video recorder.

"You found anything, Lee?" asked Danny.

"Well she hasn't got a map or anything like that but there is a video recorder here, maybe this can tell us more?"

"Or maybe it's just filled with her crazy rants?" offered Danny. "Does it work?"

"No, I think the batteries are dead." answered Lee.

"Damn, we ran out of batteries a while ago."

"So is this it? Are we going back now?"

"If they ain't here, I don't know where they are. And it ain't a good idea to go tromping through the woods looking for them. So yeah, we head back." said Danny. He walked over to Jolene's body and picked up her crossbow, he seemed to examine it for a second before deciding to keep it. Lee picked up the only box with food in it and joined him for the journey back.

* * *

Lee trudged slowly through the forest as he followed Danny closely, the leaves on the forest floor cascaded over his feet like a river of orange. He was trying to keep a look out for danger but couldn't take his mind off of the events that had just occurred. In his mind, he saw the woman collapsing to the floor, again and again. The guilt racked his brain like a tenacious weed refusing to be pulled from the ground. Did he have to kill her? He didn't even remember choosing to shoot, it was just instinct the minute she had mentioned Clementine. It was the second time he'd killed someone in his life, but unlike the first time he had meant to do it. Lee didn't think he was a bad person but he wasn't sure; this woman, although she was indeed pointing a crossbow at them, had done nothing to either him or Danny except steal Clementine's hat. She wasn't with the bandits and she hadn't attacked Mark, but she still was a victim of the bandit's violence. Lee had killed her and he had wanted to do it, and the thought sickened him to the core. It twisted knots in his stomach. Lee decided he couldn't keep brooding on it and tried to push it to the back of his mind, and to try to keep a lookout for any danger.

* * *

It was late evening by the time they got back to the dairy, a brisk wind was starting to pick up that managed to chill Lee a little even through his thick jacket. The two of them walked down the driveway to the farmhouse, Lee feeling very weak now from the arduous trek. The biscuits from earlier may have given him some strength but he hadn't had a proper meal in him for about a couple of days.

"Well, I'm glad to be back now." said Danny as he held open the gate for Lee.

"So am I, this journey has taken all my energy. Do you think dinner will be soon?"

"Hopefully. And it'll be a good one, Mama can sure cook a great deer stew. Yesterday Andy shot a buck out in the woods that should feed us all. That gun's been quite useful recently, killing animal and woman alike."

"Jesus, Danny," Lee scolded as he handed the rifle back. Lee hadn't quite recovered from the encounter with Jolene and Danny speaking about it so trivially didn't help.

"What? You ain't going soft on 'em, are ya? Not after what they did to your friend."

They were interrupted by Brenda rushing down from the porch to greet them. "Thank goodness you're back! What happened?"

"Lee handled it, mama," said Danny before leaving. Lee went to talk to Brenda as he thought she deserved a better explanation than that. He sat down next to her on the rocking bench.

"We met this crazy woman at the camp; she had Clementine's hat and she seemed to know who we were but I don't think she was one of the bandits," Lee explained. "She waved her crossbow around and threatened to kill us so we had no choice but to shoot."

"Did you manage to find out where the rest of them are?" she asked.

"No, unfortunately we didn't find anything there but a box of food."

"This isn't what Terry would've wanted," sighed Brenda.

"Who's Terry?" asked Lee.

"My husband. I miss him every day," she said sadly. Unfortunately the quiet of the October evening was shattered by the sound of Kenny and Lilly arguing yet again. Lee couldn't tell what they were saying but it was obviously as heated as the rest of their disagreements. Kenny stormed off into the barn, within which Lee could see the rest of his family and Andy sat around a cow; no Clementine, though.

"What's going on with them?" Lee asked Brenda.

"I dunno, squabblin' looks like," she answered. "A lotta tension with y'all, huh?"

"Well, they have different ideas on how we should run our group. If they don't find common ground this whole thing's gonna fall apart."

"Nah, it's just tough times," she reasoned. "Everyone's hungry and people get stir crazy when their tummies are empty."

"I suppose, we haven't had a lot of food this past week."

"Well, I got just the cure for that," she chuckled. "And Lee, don't worry your head about them bandits. I'm sorry you've seen more violence than I'd would've thought in your short time, but y'all are safe here. Don't worry."

"Okay, thank you Brenda," said Lee. "You haven't seen Clementine around have you?"

"Yeah, she's upstairs with Mark at the moment, she wanted to keep him company. He's fine by the way, a couple of days rest and he should be right as rain. That Katjaa is a real life saver," she said appreciatively.

"Well that's good to hear, do you mind if I visit him?"

"Sure, go on right ahead. He's up the stairs and first on the left."

Lee thanked her, got up from the bench and entered the farmhouse. He was greeted immediately by both the warmth of the house and the sweet smell of cooking from the kitchen. Lee could hardly wait for dinner, he was so hungry it actually hurt. He took a quick detour to investigate dinner and saw enough food to feed 20 people, yet alone just a dozen. _'Nobody's going hungry tonight'_ he thought. He went up the stairs and found Mark sitting up in bed, a bandage around his upper torso.

"Lee! You're back!" cried Clementine as she jumped down from her chair.

"Hello, Clem," smiled Lee. "Have you been keeping Mark company?"

"Yes she has," said Mark. "She's told me all about her old tree house, haven't you?"

"Yeah, the swing reminded me of it so I drew a picture," said Clementine as she showed Lee the drawing. Lee could recognise the treehouse where he had first met Clementine, a tyre dangled from a branch and Clementine had drawn herself sitting on it being pushed by her mother.

"It's very good Clem," complimented Lee. "Did Brenda give you the crayons?"

"Yeah she did, I prefer my ones but I left back at the motel. Have you seen Maybelle the cow yet?"

"No not yet, why don't you go see her and I'll catch up in a second," he smiled.

"Okay Lee." she said and ran off down the stairs to go to the barn.

"Hey Mark, how's your back?"

"Hurts like a bitch but I should be alright," said Mark through gritted teeth. "Did you find the camp?"

"We found the camp but I don't think it was the bandits'. Instead there was a woman who I think used to be with them; she was absolutely mental though," Lee explained. "She was jabbering on about killing us with her crossbow and coming down here to kill everyone here as well."

"What happened?"

"I had to put her down. I shot her right through the forehead," Lee confided. "But the really disturbing thing is she had Clementine's hat."

"She had Clementine's hat? Do you think she snuck into the motel?!"

"She musta done, how else would she get it?"

"I don't know." Mark pondered. "I'm glad you dealt with her though, we can't have some crazy woman in the woods sneaking in and out whenever she wants."

"I know... but I feel like such a piece of shit. Dinner should be ready soon, will you be joining us for it?"

"Hopefully, I'm looking forward to it. I've been smelling the cooking for like an hour."

"Yeah, it kills you to wait doesn't it?" Lee chuckled. "Do you mind if I go talk to the others before we eat?"

"Not at all, I might have a quick nap, I'm seriously tired."

"Alright then, I'll see you later."

Lee made his way back outside and started towards the barn. The chilling breeze was still present and the sun was starting to make its final descent below the horizon. Lilly flagged Lee down as he walked past and quickly asked what had happened out there, so Lee explained everything to her, including how he had had to shoot the poor woman.

"I don't like this Lee," said Lilly. "Bandits in the woods? I think we should go back to the motor inn where we at least know what to expect."

"Nonsense," huffed Larry. "At least when we're on this farm we have an electric fence to protect us, we should be trying to stay here permanently, not leave!"

"I agree with Larry," said Lee, however much it pained him to do so. "If we're attacked by those bandits at the motor inn we'd be in real trouble. What were you and Kenny arguing about when I came back from the camp?"

"I think he's losing it, Lee," Lilly sighed. "He comes over to me and talks about searching the barn and that these people are hiding something."

"But you told him to mind his own business right?" asked Larry. "We want to be gaining these people's trust not go snooping around their home."

"I'll talk to him to him at some point, maybe I'll get some sense into him." said Lee.

"Just don't get too nosy," commanded Lilly. "These kinds of people are usually pretty protective of their privacy."

"Yeah!" agreed Larry. "And we don't need you pokin' your nose where it don't belong and getting us all thrown out on our asses!"

"Alright, Larry," said Lee. He didn't have the energy to tell him to back off. He made his way to the barn and pulled the main door open, it made a wooden squeak as it moved. Inside was a series of stalls running the length of the barn which Lee supposed must have been where they used to keep all the cows. Yet more ribbons and awards lined the walls and above his head was a collection of licence plates, all were from different states. Inside were Katjaa, Andy, Duck, and Clementine who were all sat around a cow lying on the ground, she lifted her head up to get a look at Lee but had soon returned to her sleepy position. Lee sat on a chair next to Clementine and made himself comfortable.

"We heard from Clementine that you'd just got back," said Andy. "How did everything go?"

"I'm sure Danny will tell you all about it, for now I just wanna get dinner. How's the cow doing?"

"Maybelle's doing fine now that we've got Doc on the case," chuckled Andy.

Lee looked down at the cow at his feet, she was breathing slowly and looked quite thin. "Katjaa says Maybelle could have her baby tonight!" squealed Clementine.

"We'll see, Clementine. We'll see." said Katjaa with an air of knowing about her. "You can pet her if you want to, it's okay."

Clementine turned to Lee as if she was asking for his permission as well. "It's okay, go ahead," he smiled. She knelt down and reached her hand out to the cow to carefully pet her head.

"Woah..." she gasped, starting to slowly stroke the cow's neck and giving it a big hug.

As she petted the cow, Lee spotted a peculiar looking cube shaped object on the ground by Duck's legs. "What's that?" Lee asked.

"Daddy says it's called a 'salt lick'" said Duck.

"Don't lick it though, it's gross," giggled Clementine.

"Wait, did you lick it?" Lee asked her.

"... I don't know..." she stammered.

Lee chuckled to himself. Clementine had obviously licked it and paid the price. "Oh, Clementine! Look what I found whilst me and Danny were gone," said Lee, brandishing her hat.

"My hat! You found it!" she sang happily as she took it and placed it back in its rightful place; on her head. "I knew you'd find it, you said you would!"

"Listen, did you give you hat to anyone?"

"No, why?"

"Did you see any strangers around the motor inn who might have taken it?"

"No, why?"

"It's probably nothing. Just let me know if you ever see anything like that, okay?"

"Okay, I will," said Clementine. "Hey Lee, do you think you'll ever have kids?"

Lee was taken slightly aback by the question, truth be told he had always wanted kids but had never felt quite ready to have them just yet. "I'd like to someday. Maybe I'll have a little girl like you," he smiled.

"That'd be nice," she said. "You'd be a good daddy. Well, thanks for finding my hat!"

"You're welcome, Clem," beamed Lee.

"Do you want to pet the cow with me?"

"Nah, but you go on ahead," said Lee. He had just seen Kenny at the back of the barn fiddling with a locked door. This must have been what Lilly was on about. Lee stood and made his way over to Kenny, if the St. Johns were to see him messing with their locked doors they could all get kicked off the farm and Lee wanted to make sure that didn't happen. "Hey Kenny, what're you doing?"

"Oh Jesus! You startled me," whispered Kenny. "Lee they're hiding something behind this door. I got a quick look, they got boxes of stuff and something metal and sharp."

"You're just paranoid Kenny," Lee reassured him.

"It's my job to be paranoid, I got my whole family on this farm right now! How about you? What about Clem?"

"I'll protect her no matter what," replied Lee sincerely.

"I know you will," Kenny nodded. "Look, that guy with Katjaa... what's-his-name. He looked it up **real** tight the second we came in. I definitely heard a noise back there, Lee."

"What?"

"I don't know. My point is we gotta know for sure! So go find a hammer or something and I'll have this thing off in a second. You back me up in case those farmers come running."

"Hang on man, think this through," said Lee, attempting to persuade Kenny otherwise. "You smash that lock, then what if it turns out you're wrong? You just fucked your chance to get a good meal in those kids you're trying to protect. Use your head, Kenny."

"Hmm, well how are we gonna get it off without them knowing then?"

"Why don't you just leave it alone?"

"I need to know, Lee," Kenny sighed. "Hey, you know how to pick a lock, right?"

"No! Why would you say that?"

"Well, you're... you know... urban?"

"Oh you are not saying what I think you're saying."

"Jesus man, I'm from Florida. Crazy shit just comes out of my mouth sometimes, I'm sorry."

Suddenly Andy's voice rang out from behind them, startling them both. "Can I help you boys find something?"

It was Lee who spoke first. "What's behind this door?" he asked Andy. He hoped that by asking Andy directly he'd be able to get Kenny to calm down and stop being so damn paranoid.

"That's where we skin and prepare anything that we hunt. Mama doesn't like us to make a mess in the house so we do it out here," explained Andy. "I can open it up, if you'd like?"

"Yes please" said Kenny coldly.

Andy dug his hand into his back pocket and brandished the key, after opening the door up Lee and Kenny could have a good look inside. There was indeed a deer carcass on a hook and knives of all different shapes and sizes littered about on the tables. There was also quite a lot of blood on the floor pooling under the carcass. "You see? There's nothing to worry about," stated Andy.

"Why'd you have it locked then?" asked Kenny suspiciously.

"I didn't want the kids to come in here and hurt themselves with a knife or something. Those things are sharp. I've cut myself on them more times than I'd care to admit! Also it's pretty darn gnarly in here."

"Oh..." said Kenny. He stared down at the floor in shame. "I'm sorry for poking around back here, I shoulda just asked you."

"Don't worry about it man. There's no harm done," replied Andy. "You're just making the kids safe, I can appreciate that." Andy ushered them back out and locked the door back up. At that moment a small bell from outside the barn started to ring which could only mean one thing: dinner was ready!

Duck jumped up from his stool in excitement, "Mom! Dad! It's dinner time! It's dinner time!"

"Okay honey, go get your dad," chuckled Katjaa.

Duck sprinted the length of the barn towards his father, "Dad! Come on! Let's eeeaaat!"


	4. Dinner

**The Fortress St John**

 **Chapter 4 - Dinner**

* * *

Lee had never felt so full in his entire life. He had eaten a full plate, gone back for seconds and barely finished his thirds before having to stop for fear of brimming over. Brenda had certainly created an incredible mix of food from the limited resources available. The main dish was a deer stew which had tasted absolutely delicious and was accompanied by a selection of vegetables and roasted potatoes. Everybody had tucked in and eaten plenty, even Mark who had joined them from upstairs. Lee was sat next to Brenda and had enjoyed a lively conversation with her and Andy. For the first time in quite some time he felt truly at ease, just enjoying dinner with good friends. It was almost comparable to barbeques before the dead time when family and friends would come together to celebrate some occasion with burgers and beer, and although the food had been finished quite some time ago the group still sat talking at the table. Everyone except for Clementine and Duck who had gone off to play in the house's toy room.

A clinking sound resounded from Brenda's glass as she tapped it with a spoon, everyone silenced and gave her their undivided attention for the inevitable speech that was about to be given. "Before you y'all leave to go back to your motel there's a few words I would like to say on behalf of my family," she said. "It's been absolutely wonderful to have guests around as kind as yourselves. I'm very happy to have met y'all and I believe we all hope that this will be the beginning of a time of trade that will keep both our groups safe and secure. I would also like to apologise for what happened to Mark earlier today. We are truly sorry that you were put in harm's way, Mark. Believe me, if I knew you were in any danger I would never have allowed you and Lee to go unarmed. Unfortunately this brings me onto the more serious topic of what we will do about these bandits. I hate to say it but it's my belief that me and my boys won't be able to keep our home secure from those men, even with the fence to protect us. I know that we've barely met but I would like to invite you all to come stay with us. Me and my boys have talked about it and we want to you to help us. We can make room for you in the house and you can sleep safe and sound behind this fence. In return we'd ask you to help us defend our home from those bandits."

Everyone was rendered speechless by the news that the St Johns wanted them to stay at the dairy with them. Lee had never imagined that they'd ever be able to stay at the farm, yet alone so soon! Even with the looming threat of the Save-Lots bandits it still felt a hell of a lot safer than the motor inn.

"Well I imagine you'd all want to talk about it amongst yourselves," continued Brenda, looking around at the faces gazing up at her. "If you don't want to get involved with our quarrel with the bandits we'd completely understand, but we really would appreciate the extra protection that a big group would give us. So would you all please consider it and let us know as soon as possible. The sooner we get you to our farm the sooner my family can rest at ease."

The whole group looked absolutely delighted with the proposition, they'd finally gotten the chance to safe shelter, which even with the bandits was more than could be said for the motel. They all thanked the St Johns profusely for the kind hospitality and all promised to consider the offer. Larry even seemed to be moderately cheerful! The children were rounded up and they all left together; even Mark who insisted he was strong enough to make the trek back to the motor inn.

* * *

In the time since they had left the dairy the heavens had opened and rain poured down upon the group. Despite the chilling rain Lee offered his thick coat to Clementine who took it gratefully and although the size of it looked quite ridiculous on her at least she wasn't cold. Lee didn't mind the cold, not even rain-soaked clothes could dampen his high spirits. He made sure Clementine gripped his hand tightly as they walked through the dark forest, the two of them brought up the rear with the rest of the group leading the way ahead of them.

He had originally thought the whole group believed staying at the dairy to be the best course of action but apparently Lilly still didn't want to stay there. For what reason Lee couldn't fathom as there was not a single thing redeeming about the motor inn. Kenny was trying to convince Lilly otherwise but she wouldn't budge.

"Those bandits are dangerous," said Lilly. "We get involved in their war and we'll be the ones shot dead in the crossfire."

"Lilly think about it," appealed Kenny. "Say we don't join them and the dairy falls, you think that those bandits will stop there? They'll come after us next and we won't have an electric fence to protect us or the food supply to feed us, they could just starve us out if they wanted. No matter what you think going to the dairy is the right choice!"

"For what it's worth I agree with Kenny," said Lee. "Living on that dairy is just safer in every way. And also we've got a few guns so we should be able to handle them just fine."

"No Lee!" retorted Lilly. "We shouldn't underestimate these people, they could be really dangerous. What we should do is just stay out of it and let them fight it out and afterwards they'd have no reason to come after us. After all, we've done nothing to them."

"Neither had the St Johns when they first attacked," reasoned Kenny. "Those people attacked without provocation and demanded a constant stream of food from them. What's to say they won't do the same to us? We've got barely enough to feed ourselves at the motor inn yet alone supply this group of punks."

"Pumpkin, as much as I hate to say it I think you're making the wrong call," Larry spoke up. "We can't stay at that motor inn, we'll get caught out on our asses back there."

"Even you, Dad!?" cried Lilly in disbelief. "I never thought you'd gang up against me as well!"

"Nobody's ganging up against you Lilly," said Lee. "We're all in this together."

"Hmph..." Lilly huffed. She stormed off ahead of the group with Larry chasing after her.

"What is her problem?" asked Kenny. "Why can't she not cause trouble for one day? Just one lousy day!"

"Just let her be," said Lee. "There's no use in trying to start another fight, just let Larry talk to her for a while."

"Lee, how much further do we have to walk?" asked Clementine.

"Not far now, sweetpea. Another 15 minutes and we'll be there," replied Lee. "Hey Mark? How're you holding up?"

"I'm alright," he answered, looking very pale. "Just feeling a little weak is all. And my shoulder still hurts like a bitch."

"You want us to slow down?" quizzed Kenny.

"No, I'll manage. I'll be glad to get some rest when we get back."

The group all continued walking down the path, Larry and Lilly's voices carrying over from somewhere ahead. The rain was starting to let up and soon the clouds had cleared and the stars were visible. When Lee looked up to the sky he was sure the stars were dimmer now than they were before the dead time. Perhaps it was because of all the smoke in the air? Whatever it was Lee wasn't sure that it wasn't just his imagination.

"Did you know my dad likes to stargaze at night?" Clementine said. "He has a telescope and everything."

"Does he really?"

"Yeah, sometimes he points it at the planets and he tells me all about them. My favourite is Saturn because of the rings."

"You've seen the rings of Saturn? That's pretty cool."

"Yeah, if you have a big enough telescope you can see them, it's really cool!"

Suddenly Lilly came rushing back to the rest of group crouching. "Guy's you're gonna want to see this."

"What is it?" asked Lee.

"There's a car up ahead of us," explained Lilly.

"Fuck me, there is," said Kenny crouching. "I can hear the engine."

The group made their way quietly down the trail to meet up with Larry who pointed to the car. It was a station waggon sat in the middle of the trail, the gentle hum of the engine reverberating through the clearing. It looked like it belonged to someone but whoever that someone was, was nowhere to be seen.

"Is there anyone around?" Kenny whispered to Larry.

"I don't know, do I look like the fucking oracle to you?" Larry hissed back.

"Alright, Kenny and I will check it out, the rest of you stay here," Lee told the group. The pair of them made their way down the trail towards the car, looking for any signs of movement coming from within the car.

"Hello?" Lee called out. "Don't shoot us, we're not here to hurt anybody!"

There was no reply.

Kenny shrugged at him. "I think it's abandoned," he hissed to Lee.

"Who leaves a car with its engine on in the middle of the woods?" Lee replied. "The owners must be close."

Lee continued to sneak up to the station waggon crouched low, making no sound as he slowly closed the distance. As he got closer he could clearly see that the car was indeed devoid of people, there was absolutely nobody in the car or the clearing. He opened the driver's side door and turned the engine off.

"It's safe to come out," Lee called back to the rest of the group. "There's nobody here."

"Oh crap! Baby you gotta see this" Kenny cursed. "There's a shitload of food and supplies back here!"

The entire group crowded around the boot of the car to examine the discovery. "There must be months worth of food here," he gasped.

"You're not thinking of taking it are you, Kenny?" asked Lee.

"Why the hell not?" replied Kenny. "Whoever gathered it all clearly doesn't care about it enough to keep it safe."

"They can't have gone far, Kenny. The engine was still on!" hissed Lee.

"Well, they could be dead?" suggested Kenny.

"Look, we don't know if these people are dead," said Lilly. "If they come back, then we're just monsters who came out of the woods and ruined their lives."

"Well who the hell would leave a car in the forest with weeks worth of food in it?" asked Kenny, "Anyone who's dead, that's who!"

"Dad, whose car is this?" Duck asked his father.

"Don't worry about that Duck, it's ours now," he replied.

"It's abandoned, Ducky. Don't worry" said Katjaa.

"What if it's not?" asked Clementine as all eyes turned to face her. "This stuff isn't ours and what if it's not abandoned. What if it **is** someone's?"

"Clementine is right," agreed Lee. "If we take this stuff we'll be no better than the bandits."

"What the hell, Lee?" exclaimed Kenny. "This is different to the bandits, we're not hurting anyone by taking this stuff!"

"Yes we are!" retorted Lilly. "The people who this stuff belongs to are still out there."

"How do you know they're still alive?" quizzed Kenny.

"How can you be sure they aren't?" quizzed Larry, backing up his daughter.

"Kenny we are not taking this stuff, we simply don't need it," said Lilly.

"Well if you're so hell bent on staying at the motor inn then we're gonna need it aren't we?" questioned Kenny. "You can't refuse to go to the dairy **and** refuse to take this stuff, it's one or the other!"

"Yes I can, we can't stay at the dairy because it's too dangerous and we can't take this food because it's immoral."

"Immoral?" scoffed Kenny. "What's immoral is putting the welfare of people you don't even know over the lives of your friends and family."

"Kenny, calm down will you?" pleaded Lee. "We can survive without thi-"

"- you know what Kenny?" interrupted Lilly. "Have it your way, let's go stay at the dairy. And when someone you love is killed by those freaks just remember who told you it was too dangerous!"

"Fine, we'll leave all this food here for some other bastard to come along and find. I just hope it isn't those bandits."

* * *

The group had finally reached the motel but were absolutely exhausted from the trek there. The rest of the journey back had been a constant pissing contest between Lilly and Kenny which had continued right up until they reached the motel's gates. So as Doug rushed down from his lookout spot on top of the RV and Ben came out of the RV to greet them Lee was just glad to have some respite from the Kenny and Lilly's slog contest.

"You're back! We were just about to come out looking for you," Ben told the exhausted group.

"What the hell happened to you, Mark?" exclaimed Doug. He had just spied that Mark was hunched over and the back of his shirt was covered in blood.

"I was shot with an arrow," answered Mark grimly. "I'm gonna head to bed, I'm sure they'll get you up to speed," Mark gestured to the rest of the group. and left for his room on the top floor for some well-needed rest. The rest of the group entered the RV explaining the events at the dairy to Doug and Ben.

"So after you two left, Mark and I went to check the fences," began Lee. "We were attacked by a group of bandits claiming the St Johns had broken a deal with them and Mark got shot. We managed to get away and that was when everyone else arrived."

"Holy shit, is he alright?" asked Doug.

"He'll be fine," scoffed Larry. "I've seen guys go through worse."

"Yeah, he'll be fine. The St Johns took Mark inside and patched him up," said Kenny. "Lee went off with Danny St John to one of their supposed camps but apparently found nothing."

"Yeah, we had some run-in with a woman who used to be with them but nothing about the actual bandits," said Lee. "But we should be alright, as far as I can tell they've only got arrows whereas we have bullets."

"Were they the same people we saw arguing on the way there?" asked Doug.

"I think so," said Lee. "Anyway we've got some good news, the St Johns want us to stay with them."

"With those bandits about?" exclaimed Ben. "You have got to be joking!"

"Right kid, listen up," began Kenny. "We're going to stay there whether you like it or not, you don't have to come with us but that's what we're doing. You've only just met us and you don't know what we've been through at this motor inn. Going to the dairy is the safest decision for all us and I don't give a shit what you think about it."

At this onslaught of verbal attacks, Ben shrank into the RV's cushions, "Sure Kenny... I didn't mean to upset you..."

"I don't really care, I've argued for long enough about this and quite frankly I'm not in the mood to have a discussion about it." Kenny continued. "We're leaving tomorrow as soon as possible."

"How are we gonna get there?" asked Lee.

"I got the RV working whilst you were at the dairy, we'll hop in as soon as we're packed up and ready to go," explained Kenny. "Right, I'm going to go off to bed, you lot should do the same."

"I don't need you to tell me when it's my bedtime, asshole!" sneered Larry. Kenny didn't even acknowledge Larry's reply as he left the RV followed by Katjaa and Duck.

"You should be going to bed as well, sweetpea. It's very late," Lee told Clementine.

"Okay Lee, will you be coming to bed soon?" asked Clementine.

"Sure thing, I'm just going to stay here and talk for a while but I'll be there soon," Lee reassured Clementine. With that Clementine hopped off of the RV's sofa and made her way to her and Lee's room on the ground floor.

"Why is Kenny in such a bad mood?" asked Ben. "Surely he'd be happy about the dairy?"

"Don't worry, Ben. He's just an asshole," replied Lilly. "You'll see that soon enough."

"Hey, lay off him," scorned Lee. "He's just found a chance for his family's safety and he's not the kind of guy to let that slip away."

"He doesn't need to be an asshat about it though," scoffed Larry.

"Hey, you're one to talk about being an asshat," replied Doug.

"Listen up you little shit. I don't need your cheek, I'll break you like a fucking toothpick," growled Larry.

"Seriously?" asked Lee. "We've just had the best day we've had since we found Mark and you lot are still arguing? We should be celebrating not squabbling like schoolchildren."

"I'm sorry Lee but Kenny is just so fucking infuriating," said Lilly. "Why can't he ever see anything from somebody else's perspective."

"He's just looking out for his family is all," replied Doug. "I for one agree with him. We should definitely stay at the dairy."

"It's not just that," began Lilly. "On the way here we found a car with its engine on stocked with supplies and he insisted on stealing it."

"To be fair to him though he did let up," Lee tried to reason with Lilly. "He did eventually leave without the stuff."

"Oh does that get him a gold-fucking-star?" asked Larry. "He still wanted to steal those supplies and didn't go down without a fight. I think the sooner he leaves for the coast the better."

"He only wanted to leave for the coast because he thought this motel was dangerous," said Doug. "Perhaps now that we have the dairy he'll be staying for good?"

"Just our luck," sighed Larry. "Now we're gonna have to put up with him for even longer!"

"You know what, Larry?" Lee jabbed. "I'm not going to sit here and listen to you tear into him for no reason. Kenny's a good man who cares for his family. He's done absolutely nothing to you."

"Oh, I have no doubt he'd kill me if given half a chance," replied Larry.

"Right, I'm going to bed," said Lee angrily. "If you lot are just gonna sit and talk shit behind his back I want nothing to do with it."

"I'll head to bed too I think," added Doug.

"Me too," agreed Ben.

The three of them left the RV together and made their way to their respective rooms. Doug to his ground floor room next to Lee's and Ben to the room he had been given on the top floor next to Mark's. The motel wasn't exactly in short supply of rooms and everybody there could have a room to themselves if they wanted but Kenny's family still shared a room and so did Lee and Clementine. As Lee entered their room he found Clementine already asleep in her bed snoring loudly. She must have entered the room and passed out immediately because she still had her shoes on.

Lee made his way over to her and pulled her shoes off slowly, put them at the foot of her bed and climbed his way into his own bed. He pulled his shoes and socks off but nothing more as there wasn't the luxury of pyjamas anymore. The only blankets they had were incredibly thin and were still a bit much as the Georgian heat made the room incredibly stuffy and sticky, a perfect recipe for sleepless nights. But even with the heat that Lee found himself to be quite tired and glad for the chance to rest at last.

Lee listened to Clementine's snoring from the other bed, for such a small girl her snoring was horrendous. It surprised him at first that she could make such a racket but he didn't mind, his ex-wife had snored for 12 years so Lee could sleep just fine with it. The worst days of his life had been back in that cold, quiet jail cell at night wishing to hear her snoring just one more time. It was ironic but the end of the world had, instead of dooming him, truly freed him.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **So that's it for the first four chapters I really hope you've enjoyed them. If all goes to plan these four should all be released together. I'm sorry for the similarities between the fic and the game but from now on it will be 100% different! If you read all four chapters all the way through first of all are you mad? and second of all thank you so much! If you've enjoyed this fic please let me know in the reviews if you want more and also how you think the story could be better. Spelling checks, grammar checks, suggestions and speculations for the plot and anything you want to say for the story ARE ALL WELCOME! I'll do my best to reply to reviews either by PMs or through the authors notes.**

 **THANKS FOR READING!**


	5. My kingdom for a mattress!

**The Fortress St John**

 **Chapter 5 - My kingdom for a mattress!**

* * *

Lee awoke to the sound of rapid knocking on his door. Sunlight streamed from between the curtains and created shafts of light which lit the dim room. Flecks of dust floated and danced in these streaks and settled upon the drawers and tacky picture frames. Lee peeled himself from his bed and checked the time on his watch, it was 8:07 am.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" said Lee.

"Well hurry up," came Kenny's muffled voice from beyond the door. Lee made his way over to the door and opened it up. "Ah, there you are! You're gonna want to get your stuff together as we're leaving at 9 'o clock."

"Okay then, thanks Kenny," replied Lee as shut the door again. There wasn't an awful lot of his stuff to get ready, truth be told he was already wearing the vast majority of his possessions. Clementine, still laying in her bed snoring softly, would have a few toys and crayons to collect so Lee decided to wake her up. Her sheets lay on the floor surrounding the bed, she must have kicked them off during the night. Lee shook her shoulder slightly to wake her up. "Come on baby girl, it's time to get up now."

"... I don't wanna get up," she whined sleepily.

"Hey come on sweetpea, don't give me that," said Lee. "I normally let you sleep in for as long as you want, it's just today we need to be up early."

"...alright," she moaned as dragged herself up and out of bed.

"We're gonna be leaving in about 50 minutes," explained Lee. "So you make sure you collect up all your stuff because we're probably not going to be coming back here."

"Okay Lee," she yawned. "I'm glad we're leaving here, there's so much more room at the dairy. Instead of kicking my soccer ball against a wall we can actually play it!"

"Sure we can Clem," chuckled Lee. "But I might not be able to run around for as long as you!"

"That's alright. I'll just make sure I'm playing against you."

After Lee put his socks and shoes back on he made his way outside into the motel's courtyard, everyone else seemed to be already up and packing their things into the RV. Nobody had many personal possessions or clothes to pack up so the majority of the items on the RV were either the kid's toys or the last of the dwindling supplies.

"Hey Lee," called out Kenny from the RV. "You sleep well?"

"I sure did, yesterday was a mighty tiring day. You seem to be in a good mood?"

"I am! We've got a dairy to stay at and it's a hell of a lot safer than this motel," chuckled Kenny. "You seen Doug around? I think he's still asleep."

"No I just woke up, I'll go get him."

Lee walked over to the room next to his own which belonged to Doug, he rapped on the door loudly but there was no answer. Nobody in the motel locked their doors at night so Lee wasn't surprised when he could open the door and took a step inside the musty room. Doug lay passed out in the middle of bed drooling into his pillow.

"Come on Doug, get up," said Lee as he tried to shake him awake. "Wake up Doug!"

Doug spluttered awake from his deep slumber,"...sorry Lee. I fell asleep again."

"Again?"

"Kenny woke me up a bit ago but I musta dozed off again." yawned Doug.

"No worries, just make sure you don't do it a second time. We're leaving in 3 quarters of an hour so make sure you've got your stuff ready."

"What stuff?" chuckled Doug. "Who has stuff anymore?"

"Well, you know what I mean Doug. Just make sure you're ready to go."

As there was not a lot of things that needed to be put into the RV, Lee spent the rest of the time at the motel working with Larry to make a hole in the fence big enough for the RV to fit through. The gate wouldn't work as it wasn't big enough and the group didn't want to just punch a hole in the fence with the RV for fear of damaging some vital component so Lee and Larry worked together to peel boards away from the fence. Lee would pull a few nails out of a board with a pair of pliers whilst Larry would then pull the board free with his brute strength. The nails and boards were then packed away into the RV for future use at the dairy. Larry grumbled the whole time about destroying the wall he spent so long building but within half an hour he and Lee and carved a hole just wide enough for the RV.

By 8:50 am everything was packed up and everyone was ready to go, Lee made his way into the RV entrance before he realised there would be a problem. "Umm, Kenny? There's not enough room in here!" The entire RV was packed with boxes and supplies from top to bottom, and although the seats were clear of stuff there were already people in them, looking around Lee could see no available space that he and the rest of the waiting people could sit.

"What do you mean there's not enough room?" Kenny called out from the front of the RV.

"I mean with all this stuff in here there's not enough room for us all," explained Lee.

"Oh shit, I didn't think of that," said Kenny scratching his stubble. "You could ride on top?"

"Ride on top?"

"Well it's not as if we're gonna get arrested or anything," Kenny replied. "Just stick a few of you on top and we should be good. I'll just make sure not to take a corner too fast."

In the end, it was decided that Lee, Lilly and Doug would have to ride on top of the RV and Larry, being the strongest person, gave each of them a boost up. Kenny slowly drove through the gap in the fence, careful not to accidently scrape the RV's side on it; Lee thought it was funny that even at the end of the world Kenny still didn't want to damage the paint job, but he didn't say anything. Instead Lee resigned himself to laying down flat upon the roof, feeling the wind rush through his hair and the morning sun beating down upon his face as the RV carried them on the short drive to their destination.

* * *

By the time they reached the St John Family Dairy everyone was desperate to get out of the cramped RV as they had next to no leg room. That is, everyone except for Lee, Lilly and Doug who had quite enjoyed their trip atop the RV. Not much had been said between the three apart from a slight grumble from Lilly as to the decision to stay at the dairy but for the most part it had been quite friendly. Now as the RV trundled down the driveway and into the dairy's courtyard Lee could see the St John family rushing down from the farmhouse's porch to greet them.

"Oh, I am so glad to see your faces!" called out Brenda from the house. "At first we thought you mighta been the bandits but when we saw Mark opening the gates we knew it was you!"

"Hey, Brenda," Lee called out from on top of the RV. "Good news! We'd like to take you up on that offer of accommodation."

"Well that's grand," commented Andy. Everyone piled out of the RV and said their 'hellos' and 'thank yous' to the family as Lee jumped down from the RV into a nearby pile of hay.

"Woah, that looks like fun!" said Duck. "Can I have a go?"

"Maybe some other time," said Kenny. "For now you can help us get all this stuff into the barn."

The group went back and forth between the RV and the barn as they piled all the supplies to where the St Johns directed them. None of the items they brought were much bigger than a cardboard box as they still had to fit through the RV's door but some were still quite heavy. Despite this everyone pitched in to get the job done, even Clementine helped out by carrying some of the lighter things. Maybelle the cow sat lazily in her corner of the barn watching the people coming and going making barely a noise but the occasional soft breath, she was still heavily pregnant and was expected to deliver any day soon but gave no signs whatsoever of when that day would be. Soon the RV was entirely devoid of items and the group entered the farmhouse to discuss the logistics of the arrangement.

The group, in exchange for their staying at the dairy, had to do a number of things around the dairy. They were to help out with the actual farm, tending to the crops and milking Maybelle and such things as that. They also had to help out with the fence, clearing it of walkers now and again and collecting gas for its use. Lilly had suggested that perhaps they establish a lookout like the one they had had back at the motel and everyone agreed with this idea. A rota was drawn up consisting of shifts of no more than two hours that would allow the dairy to have a constant 24/7 lookout for the bandits should they decide to attack again.

"And there's one last thing I should mention," said Brenda. "There's not enough rooms in the house for y'all to sleep in so a few of you will have to sleep out in the barn each night. Is that alright?"

"That'll be fine," said Lilly. And so a second rota was drawn up for who would be sleeping where on each night. The St Johns had permanent residence in the biggest bedroom of the house as it was big enough for both a bed and two mattresses and it had an en-suite so they had a toilet to themselves. In the house there were two other bedrooms, Andy and Danny's old room which had two beds and space for a mattress and a guest room with one bed and space for a mattress. In addition to this, there were two sofas down in the living room that people could sleep on as well. This left two people who would have to sleep in the barn each night as well as the one person who would be on watch and so wouldn't need a bed. The RV itself had sleeping facilities but as this was where the person on watch would be it was decided that for a good night's sleep it wasn't a good idea to be below the person on watch.

"Unfortunately we're a couple of mattresses short so the people who are sleeping in the barn will have to make do with just the straw," explained Brenda. "It might not be the most comfortable thing in the world but it's better than nothing, and we have blankets as well so it should be alright."

And with that the meeting was concluded, everyone went outside happy to see that the transition between homes had gone so smoothly. Lee wasn't entirely happy with the mattress situation in the barn but with the added security of the fence he wasn't too bothered. He saw Clementine playing on the swing by herself and ran over to her to say hello.

"Hey sweetpea," he said. "How're you doing?"

"I'm okay," said Clementine. "How are you?"

"I'm happy now that we're on this dairy for good! What do you think?"

"I thought I would be sad to leave the motel but I wasn't because I like this place much better," she smiled. "I especially like the swing."

"You're gonna have to make sure you share it with Duck though, don't hog it all for yourself okay?" chuckled Lee. "It does look like a lot of fun though!"

"Do you want to have a go?" asked Clementine.

"Nah, I wouldn't want to stop you from having your fun."

"Come on, Lee! I can push you!" pleaded Clementine. She jumped up off of the swing and practically pushed Lee down into it. The board wasn't quite wide enough so it was a tight squeeze for him.

"Alright, Clementine," laughed Lee. "I'll have a go on the swing. How high do you think you can push me?"

"I don't know, let's find out!" giggled Clementine. She began pushing Lee as hard as she could and higher and higher Lee went. It soon got to the point that Clementine was having to jump up into the air in order to catch the swing at its highest point so she could push it back down. Lee held onto the ropes for dear life as flew back and forth, it had been years since he was on a swing and he was loving it. There were not a lot of excuses for a 37-year-old man to get on a swing but playing with a child was certainly a good one.

* * *

 _It was at this moment that certain events had been put in motion that would remain in the memory of those who witnessed it for a long time. Early during the previous afternoon Lee Everett had fixed this particular swing but had not used a very suitable knot. He resigned himself to getting his friend Kenny to check it over but the events after the bandit attack had put this request to the back of his mind. The knot that Lee Everett had inadvertently used was, in fact, a slip-knot which, with the weight of the fully grown man and the added centripetal force due to the swinging, overcame the forces of friction in the knot causing it to slip. The knot came undone and the board upon which Lee Everett was sat no longer supported his weight and Lee Everett was sent crashing towards the ground._

* * *

One second Lee was flying through the air on the swing, the next he was sputtering on the ground in a heap. Raucous laughter came from Clementine as she collapsed in a fit of hysterics at the sight in front of her and it wasn't just her who saw it, Kenny had also witnessed the incident. He too broke out in laughter at the sight of Lee lying winded on the ground.

"Oh dear, Lee!" he said sarcastically. "Have you had a tumble?"

"Get out of here," chuckled Lee.

"Oh no, I need to see if Lee might have hurt himself," he replied. "Fancy falling off a swing like that!"

"Oh, piss off Kenny."

"Swear!" came Clementine's voice through her fits of laughter.

"It looks like you tied a slip-knot, here let me do it," said Kenny. Kenny's years of experience on the sea made him an expert with bends and hitches and he soon had a much more secure knot on the board.

"Well at least it was me who discovered the bad knot and not one of the kids," sighed Lee.

"Me too!" giggled Clementine.

"Anyway, I've been thinking about the mattress situation in the barn," said Kenny. "There are plenty of mattresses back at the motel that we can use. A few of us should head back and collect a few."

"That doesn't sound too bad," agreed Lee. "Shall we take the RV?"

"Of course, I ain't carrying a mattress all the way here."

* * *

"I didn't think we'd be heading back to the motel so soon," said Doug. He was sat in passenger seat whilst Kenny drove and Lee stood between them gripping the seats for support.

"Yeah, if I'd known we'd need the mattresses I woulda strapped a few to the top," agreed Kenny.

"How many will we need?" asked Lee.

"Three should do," answered Kenny. "What we'll do is park up the RV close to the balcony and then drop mattress onto the RV's roof. I've got a few bungee cables we can use to tie them down for the journey back."

"Are these rifles really necessary?" asked Doug. "We know the motel's free of walkers, we've only been away for a couple of hours."

"Well we did leave a whopping great hole in the wall," said Lee. "And besides what if we run into some of those bandits? We may need to protect ourselves. I don't think anybody should leave the dairy without protection just in case they do run into those bandits."

"I agree," said Kenny. "If people are out here then at least one of them should definitely be packing."

"How many guns do we actually have?" asked Lee.

"Well, we have two rifles and Lilly's pistol," said Kenny. "How many do you have, Danny?"

Alongside the three of them Danny had also volunteered to come along on the trip to the motel, and although he hadn't said much on the journey he was definitely listening to the conversation. "We have the same, two hunting rifles and a revolver," he answered. "Oh, and the crossbow that me and Lee found yesterday."

"Only six guns and a crossbow in total then," sighed Kenny. "Not an awful lot of guns to hold off a bandit attack. Even fewer if a couple of people are out hunting or something."

"During yesterday's bandit attack I didn't hear any gunshots," said Lee. "It seems to me that they only have bows and arrows."

"Well, on the way to the dairy yesterday we did see those two guys have a fight and one of them had a shotgun," Doug pointed out. "They were probably with the bandits so it's not as if they don't have any guns at all."

"I still can't believe those bastards actually attacked you and Mark," said Danny disdainfully.

"What's the history with the bandits then?" asked Doug. "It seems to me like you didn't see them as a threat."

"That's because they weren't a threat," replied Danny. "Well, not after we made that deal with 'em."

"What was this deal anyway?" asked Lee.

"Every morning we were to give 'em some food and in return they'd stop attacking us," explained Danny. "I reckon they saw us giving you lot that basket of food and got the wrong end of the stick. They aren't the most clever of people."

"Did they give you a lot of grief before then?" asked Kenny.

"Yeah, they did. They attacked us and killed one of our farmhands," growled Danny. "I always hated giving 'em food after they did what they did. I sorta feel better now that they're no longer getting our hard-earned bread."

"Is that why you didn't warn me or Mark about them?" asked Lee. "Because you didn't think they were a threat?"

"Yeah, that's what Andy told me," answered Danny. "He said it just didn't cross his mind to mention them. We haven't seen 'em in about a month. I mean, we could see that the food was still being removed from the drop-off point but we never actually saw them around the dairy so we just figured they was leaving us alone."

"Well, at least nobody was killed," sighed Lee. "We're gonna have to be more careful from now on when we clear the fences."

* * *

"Well, here we are," said Kenny as he pulled into the motel. The four of them jumped out of the RV and did a quick check for walkers before Lee and Danny went upstairs to retrieve the mattresses and Kenny and Doug prepared to place them on the RV's roof. Lee and Danny entered unused rooms on the top floor, removed the beds' blankets, carried the mattresses out of the door and dropped them down to Kenny and Doug for the two of them to secure the mattresses to the RV.

"Alright, this is the last one," grunted Lee as he and Danny squeezed the mattress through the room's small door. They carried it to the balcony and chucked it over the side for its securing to the RV.

"That's a hell of a lot of blood on that truck," said Danny. "What happened there?"

"Oh yeah, remember the teacher I told you about? That's where Katjaa tried to treat him," replied Lee.

"This the guy whose leg you amputated?"

"Yeah, we found him caught in a bear trap and I had to cut him out," said Lee, remembering yesterday's events well.

"You know those things have a release catch, right?"

"Yeah, of course we did," countered Lee. "The trap had been altered and it didn't have a release catch. We don't just go around cutting people's legs off for fun you know."

"Altered? Who would alter a bear trap?" asked Danny. "You think those bandits were behind it?"

"Perhaps, I don't know but they coul-"

*Ding* *Ding* *Ding*

Lee's sentence was interrupted by the sound of a bell ringing from down below. "Is that your early warning system, Doug?" Lee hissed to the men below him.

"Yeah!" he heard Doug hiss back. "There's something coming from the north road!"

"Get in a room and hide," ordered Kenny. "Hopefully it's just some walkers who'll pass us by."

Lee and Danny dived into the nearest room and closed the door until nothing but a small sliver of the outside world was visible through the crack. Danny picked up the pair's bolt-action rifles and handed one to Lee.

"Are those bells how you knew me and Andy were outside when we first met?" whispered Danny.

"Yeah, Doug rigged them up yesterday morning," Lee whispered back. "There are some trip wires that run around the motel and if anything sets them off we know what general direction they're coming from."

"So, what do you think set 'em off this time?" asked Danny.

"I have absolutely no idea."

The pair of them lay silent in wait, listening out carefully for any indication as to who or what set the alarm bells off, but there was no noise except for the breeze and the men's quiet breathing. No noise in the motel to give any indication of what was coming down from the road. In fact, there seemed to be no noise at all, there was no wood creaking or metal squeaking, no rustling of leaves and there even seemed to be no birds tweeting. However, this silence was soon penetrated by the sound of voices, voices that were too far away to distinguish the conversation but voices nonetheless.

"Do you hear them?" whispered Danny.

"Yeah, but it might not be the bandits," Lee whispered back. "It could be someone else?"

"Not likely," hissed Danny.

They lay in wait as these voices grew louder, they were definitely men and it seemed there were three of them. As the men drew closer it started to become possible to understand what they were saying.

"So, is this the place the boss man wants us to check out?" asked one of them.

"Yep, the Travelier Motel," another voice replied. "Someone's definitely been living here, I can tell."

"Oh what gave that away, Callum?" asked a third voice. "Was it your psychic intuition or was it the giant fucking makeshift wall?"

"Oh, piss off James," the second man, Callum, replied. "Let's just get this over with and get back to the creek."

"Agreed," said James. "I don't think we should spend any longer than we have to out here."

"Do you think there's anybody still living here?" asked the first man. "I mean, it is quiet but maybe they could be hiding?"

"No I don't think there's anyone living here," replied James. "Look at that hole in the wall, if there was someone living here they'd have surely done something to fix that up. They've even got an RV over there that looks like it'd plug that hole nicely. But no! They've left a giant fuck-off hole in their wall."

"I suppose that makes sense," the unnamed man replied. "Shall we start searching the place then?"

"Yeah, let's search the ground floor first," replied James. "And Callum, if I see you putting any more books in your bag I'll fucking burn them all, okay?"

"Why? There's nothing to do except read nowadays."

"Because it just takes up space when you could be carrying other, more useful, things," said James.

"And we can't afford to take chances anymore," the unnamed man concurred. "Not with those people at the dairy on our asses anyway."

"I hope we find those sonsofbitches on the way back," chuckled Callum. "I wanna put this crossbow to good use."

Lee and Danny had been watching the trio of men as they talked in the courtyard of the motel. All three of them were wearing balaclavas and it seemed that only two of them were armed, and even then they only had crossbows. There was now no doubt in Lee's mind that these men were with the bandits, but luckily they hadn't spotted either him and Danny nor Kenny and Doug hiding in the motel's rooms. He watched as they began to kick in the doors to rooms on the ground floor and looting them of their contents.

"They'll be hard pressed to find anything," whispered Lee. "We've already picked this place clean."

"Yeah, but it's only a matter of time before they find Kenny and Doug!" hissed Danny.

"Oh shit! I hadn't thought of that," whispered Lee. "We gotta do something."

"We're gonna have to kill 'em, anything else is just too risky."

"Maybe can talk to them, get them to leave us alone?"

"You heard that Callum guy, he said he wanted to put his crossbow to good use," replied Danny. "That means if they find us they will kill us. So we've got to kill them first."

Lee sighed, he hated to admit it but Danny was right. If the men found Kenny and Doug they'd kill them without hesitation. "Alright, so how are we going to do to do this? There's three of them and only two of us."

"First we'll take out the two guys with crossbows. The other guy doesn't seem to be armed so we'll take him prisoner, maybe we can use him to get the rest of them to leave us alone?"

"Okay, that sounds like a plan," agreed Lee. "I'll take out Callum, you take out James."

Lee opened the door slowly, luckily it didn't squeak and give away their position. Down in the courtyard below he could see that a few rooms had already been looted and their doors lay open. James was keeping watch whilst the other two searched the rooms, however, James was watching the road and had his back to the doorway in which Lee crouched. Callum and the other man were already in rooms, searching the drawers and cupboards for supplies.

"Okay, James is over there keeping watch," whispered Lee. "We're gonna want to take them by surprise so wait until Callum changes rooms before shooting him."

"Okay, that sounds good," agreed Danny. "I'll count us down so we fire together."

The pair of them lay waiting in the doorway for the chance to open fire. Lee trained the scope of his rifle onto the back of James' head, and at any moment he was ready for Danny to count him down and to put a bullet in his brain. Lee could see James was smoking a cigarette as he waited for the other two to finish looting the rooms, he stood in the gap in the wall looking up and down the road for any possible dangers. As the wait for Callum to switch rooms became longer the heart in Lee's chest pounded faster, the adrenaline coursed through his veins and he found it hard to keep the reticule trained on the back of James' skull.

"Okay, Callum's come out. We'll fire on one," whispered Danny. "3... 2... 1..."

Lee's rifle blasted backwards into his shoulder and the noise of the two rifles firing together was cataclysmic. Looking at the aftermath Lee could see each bullet had hit their intended targets. Lee's bullet shot clean through James' head and James collapsed to the floor in a heap whilst Danny's bullet caught Callum in the neck and he lay on the tarmac clutching his neck as blood spurted from his severed jugular, the guttural noises that came from him echoing through the now-silent motel.

"Surrender now or we'll kill you too!" shouted Danny to the room in which the last bandit was.

"Fuck you!" a voice screamed from inside. "You killed my friends!"

"We know you're unarmed," shouted Lee. "You don't have to die as well, just come with us and you'll be fine!"

"You must be fucking mad!" the bandit shouted. Lee flinched as the bandit burst into the open aiming a pistol right at him! Lee dived back into the room whilst a hail of bullets embedded themselves into the wall and ceiling around him.

"Holy shit, he has a pistol!" exclaimed Lee to Danny.

"How the fuck did we miss that?! Did he have it in his bag or something!?"

Danny and Lee began to return fire through the open door but Lee found that now that the bullets were on a two-way street it was infinitely harder to line up his sights on the target. The cacophony of gunshots was deafening, the two rifles going off in the small room were horrifyingly loud and Lee's hearing was replaced with a high-pitched ringing. After every shot he worked the bolt of the rifle as fast as he could hoping that each bullet he loaded into the chamber would be the one to finally take the man down. The bandit outside fired shots that came buzzing through the doorway and punching through the thin walls causing Lee to miss every shot he took, his bullets doing nothing but pock the tarmac around the man.

A gunshot cracked from the other side of the motel, the bandit was hit in the chest and he collapsed to the floor. He lay coughing and spluttering on the ground, attempting to reach his dropped weapon as Kenny sprinted across the courtyard towards him. The bandit managed to grab his pistol and was about to raise it at the floridian when Kenny blasted the bandit's brains out the back of his head.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Kenny. "Are you guys all right?!"

"We're fine," Lee shouted down to Kenny. "How about you?"

"We're fine as well," wheezed Kenny. "Jesus Christ I thought we were goners."

"So did I," agreed Lee. He and Danny rushed down the stairs to meet Kenny and Doug in the motel's courtyard. "If you hadn't have run out like that, Kenny, I don't what woulda happened!"

"That was fucking ballsy man," laughed Danny. "You are one tough sonuvabitch."

"That was absolutely mental," said Doug. "I can't believe we got away without a scratch."

Danny bent over and took the pistol from the man's now lifeless hand. "This is a Beretta 92, it houses 15 rounds." He ejected the magazine and examined it. "Huh, and he only had one left. Lucky you got him first, eh Kenny?"

"Yeah yeah, but did you guys hear what that lot were talking about?" asked Kenny. "They mention getting back to 'the creek'. You have any idea what that means?"

"I got an idea what that means," replied Danny. "I reckon they was talking about The Creek Camping Spot. It's not that far from the dairy."

"Do you think that's where they're staying?" asked Kenny.

"Maybe, I think we should probably check it out at some point," said Danny. "But for now let's just get out of here before the dead start to investigate the gunshots."

"Well, I think it may be too late for that," said Doug as he pointed over to the other side of the courtyard. Lee twisted and saw that Callum had turned, he was picking himself off of the floor and staggering his way towards the men. He howled and snapped at them across the courtyard as he closed the distance. Kenny met him halfway and punched the butt of his rifle through the walker's skull. It fell over and reached up to him from the tarmac, desperate to get a bite of Kenny's leg. The second blow from Kenny's rifle silenced him.

"Well I guess that proves one thing," sighed Doug.

"What?" asked Lee.

"It's not the bite that does it."

* * *

 **A/N**

 **So that's it for another chapter. First of all, I'd really like to thank the people who reviewed the last chapter for their kind words of support 3**

 **A Reader 67 - You made a couple of excellent points that I had overlooked. The first being the bear trap in the woods, you are quite right that in the game it is heavily implied that the St Johns were the ones to place the altered trap. I tried to explain it in this chapter but I'll just make it clear that in this universe it definitely wasn't the St Johns who placed that trap, it was probably the bandits. The second of your points was something that I should have explained better as to why the St Johns didn't warn Lee and Mark about the bandits. I hope I've made it clear that to do so just didn't cross Andy and Danny's minds as the bandits hadn't been a problem for months. However the last of your points I found quite confusing about the red and white feathered arrows. If you look closely at the scene in the game you can see that the bandits shot both white and red arrows at Lee and Mark. Also, I think you're saying that because Mark was hit by a white arrow it implied the St John's shot him? Well, I did not infer that from the game at all and I just want to say that in this universe it was definitely the bandits who shot Mark. And thanks so much for your review of the story, it forces me to make sure there are no loose ends amirite?**


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